Replacing a lightning damaged unit with a known good one.

HAVING trouble getting into the VME Pro admin via rs-232 port.
It has been many years since I had to do that.
The com port on my laptop set to 9600 8-none-1 no flow.
System will reboot from VUP <system reset> but comes back with
<system not reset> - <the device is not responding>

Seems there were sme com issues when I set up the first one
but its been too long ago to remember.

Any hints on how to talk to this thing?

Thanks
JEB@NSI