I was wondering if someone could advise me on troubleshooting stage
two of the assembly of the main board (ie. adding the CPU and serial
connections and all), or direct me to an appropriate resource.

I followed the instructions precisely, and I have checked that all the
components are properly oriented and that each component is correctly
soldered onto the board.

However when I use hcload, I keep getting the "reset the board"
message. I press reset, the red LED on the board comes on, but my
computer still says to reset the board. I tried used the JBug software
as well, but it says "Connecting" and then doesn't ever do anything.

What do I try next?