It's not going hugely well
Firstly I wired a bit of wire across where F1 lives (and checked for shorts in the socket again)...
Then I attached the power socket to +5V 500mA from my power supply and turned on, it quickly went to "CC" with the voltage display dropping to less than one volt. I'm assuming it was passing current. (I have a EL302D TTi dual supply)... nothing got warm. I even cranked it up a bit... nothing got warm.
I decided that I needed to remove a few of the more obvious components and keep trying...
I removed C3, C4, C14 and C15. No joy... still a short across EC1
(Incidentally R7 has been removed; it was a bit of collateral damage from the first time I used hot air and obviously had the fan too high.
)
In desperation I removed FB1 and FB2
There is no longer a short across EC1, this is indicative of the short being further into the board. It looks like FB1, FB2, EC1, C3 and F1 and the socket are good. The short is on the board side of FB1 and FB2.
I measured a few things and added this as an image. Lots of things are at ground potential marked "0" on my diagram. If FB1 and FB2 the short will move towards to power jack.
I hadn't previously noticed the 3x3 grid of vias, I need to follow this down and through....
Looks like I'm no nearer finding the short.