Hope he has, nothing worse than having work piling up because of machinery problems. Have you checked that the com port is set up correctly?
Unfortunately I never ran the machine as it was intended for use as it had a faulty motherboard when I bought it.
If the guy in the states can't help then hopefully the manual will have some troubleshooting info.
I had the same problem with Gerber to be honest, like you I was looking for a bit of info as originally I was going to see if I could fix the machine rather than just rip out all the original electronics. Absolutely no help what so ever which has now put me off ever buying anything with their name on it.