MSI B365M Mortar doesn't post (Stable red CPU EZ Debug LED), "gets power", missing SMD capacitor

[TyZed]

This one is a doozy, so get ready.

 

I recently got myself a used CPU, motherboard, and RAM combo. An i5-9400f, MSI B365M Mortar, and some generic SK Hynix 2x8GB RAM sticks to be specific. I assembled everything with my GPU, and power supply, pressed the power button, and got nothing. No spinning fans on the PC or the power supply; even the EZ Debug lights wouldn't light up to indicate anything,

 

Even after completely baring the motherboard of all components, I couldn't get any sign of life. After more troubleshooting I realized that the CPU had an SMD capacitor missing from the underside of it, but from what I've heard, that shouldn't be a massive issue and the PC should still post. After some fiddling around, I found a capacitor around my building area, but it wasn't from the CPU, but the motherboard, the underside of the chipset to be specific.

 

I'm not sure about the importance of that capacitor, but there might be some link with the PC not responding at all. I tried some weird stuff like putting the CPU 24-pin in and then shorting the pins used to turn the PSU on, which finally gave some life to the PC (never shorted the power switch of the mobo) when all the fans and lights started running, but I still wouldn't get a display, and the EZ debug CPU LED would stay at a stable Red color. This behavior persists whenever I turn on the PSU, without touching the PC power switch. After that, I've tried everything including clearing and removing CMOS, reseating CPU, RAM, GPU, power cables to no update on the situation. The LED stays Red and I get no display.

 

I have no clue what to do now, but my guess is that either the CPU is dead or the motherboard, the latter making more sense. I've attached some pictures of the broken capacitor spaces I mentioned.

 

Any type of help would be appreciated.