Hey everybody,
Woo-hoo!
Guess what?! My second VMI just arrived, and I hooked it up, and whaddya know: IT WORKS!!!1one
So the first one that I have been wrestling with this entire time (well, not FOR the entire time...) has indeed been bad all along.
I opened up the new and the old to compare them, and did find a difference: there are two identical funny-looking components on each board that the PCB printing identifies as an IC, but they both have 1 row of 15 pins, the IC is in a package that stands straight up, and they have these funky-looking heatsinks that appear to be clipped on to them. I have no idea what they are and the only identifiable markings don't appear to identify the part itself (I'm guessing there are more markings under the heatsink-looking things that I can't see).
I had nothing to compare them to before, so I had no idea whether/if they looked like they should, but on the bad board, those (copper?) heatsinks looks darkened and discolored compared to the good board. So I'm guessing that those components, whatever THEY are, are the bits that got zapped.
Anyway...I have a working one now. Yay.
Thanks, all,
-- Nathan