Touching a soldering iron to both sides of each pin might be a good step, but be careful that you do not lift a solder pad.  

With the CPU and LCD unplugged (and power off) you can use an ohm meter to verify conductivity for each lead between these two devices.  LCD failing to initialize frequently has been traced to a poor connection (data or enable) between the controller and the LCD.  If the crystal is oscillating you should see some data being sent on leads between these two devices.

Arv

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