DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Hello all, I've been following the forum for a few days now but have not come across anything addressing my issue (a couple of instances of similar problem but no solution).

I have a DSM-G600 H/W ver B1.  It has been running for a while on 1.02us quite well.  The other day I moved it to a new location in the same room and after plugging it in and pressing the ON button there was nothing but the fan spinning and a little movement from the HDD, that was it.

I messed around with different combination's of ON/OFF / Start Button / Reset Switch but there was no noticeable change.  I also tried doing a 30/30/30 reset, nothing.  The battery measures about 2.94v.

I opened it up and removed the HDD.  My PCB does have a 4-pin jack at J3.  Following the instructions Serial Connector page, I went through my parts bin and made a 9-pin male serial cable going to a MAX3232CPE (with the five 0.1uF capacitors) then to the PCB with the appropriate connector.  I have checked and rechecked the wiring and pin-outs, everything is fine as far as I can tell.

Measuring the voltages across several pins on the MAX3232 resulted as follows:  V2-6=12.93v, V10-14=-7.25v, V10-16=3.34v.  It would appear that it's getting the 3.3v from the device on pin 1 as it should.  However from the datasheet on the IC it looks as though these voltages correspond to "no connection"...

Next I tried interfacing with it using various methods: getty, minicom, kermit, and on Windoz hyperterminal.  They all say connected ( do to the loop-back wiring I assume ) but there is no response when I power up the device.  I'm using 9600 8N1 vt100 with no flow-control or hand-shaking.

Is this unit irrecoverably bricked!?

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!