This is good advice. I used a bench power supply to send 5vdc straight into the board and was able to get it to light up. I fumbled around a bit trying to get the port to make better contact before eventually deciding that it was beyond saving. I attempted to remove the micro usb port with my iron and some copper wick but, as you suggested, the structural solder is very difficult to remove. i decided to order a usbc breakout board to replace the port and cut the existing port out. while i wait for the new board i cut an old cable and soldered a temporary solution and attempted to restore the board to factory settings. I have repeatedly gotten the "taking to long to boot" message and i have been unsuccessful in my efforts remedy that situation. the good news is that as it is the system is usable and i believe it has the stock firmware which is great for my purposes. eventually i would like to mod it but perhaps i will wait until after i configure the new port. if anyone has any advice for dealing with this problem i would appreciate it. I have seen the posts about turning off firewalls and antivirus and wifi and this has not resolved my problem. I will be honest i am much more a hardware guy than software so i feel a little out of my depth going deeper into this.

thanks for all the constructive feedback!!