M1Gold communication

Unusual situation here. M1 gold main board burned out/shorted diodes used for converting AC to DC (alarm overload....my fault). After consulting with ELK tech support, I cut the diodes out of the system and am running on straight DC from my own deep cycle battery and IOTA power source. The entire system works flawlessly. Problem here is that I can no longer connect/communicate to system using computer/RP software (usb to rs232 port). Question: Is this comm port disabled if AC power input is no longer present?

Have checked your communications settings in RP and made sure they are correct?  
 
Have you always connected directly or did you formerly (pre-overload) use an M1XEP network connection--in which case I think you would now need to connect "direct" not "network." 

Have always connected directly. Another variable. The computer used that held RP account and access code crashed. I did back up the hardrive. However, the RP program as saved will not load and I cannot access the account. Cannot remember if I changed the factory default code or not. I tried the default and every possible combo of codes I would have used with no luck. When the cable is plugged into computer but not plugged into M1 port, the on screen notifications are identical. Windows 7 recognizes the cable is plugged in but will not identify the M1 plugged into it whether plugged in or not. And this fact has led me to believe that the M1 port is dead. It seems to reason that if the M1 is going to confirm that the access code is correct, it must complete connection to the control as that is where the info is stored. Again, plugged in or not, the dialog boxes give the exact same result. Control does not accept access code. Why would the RP software create this response if the cable were not connected to the control?

Windows isn't going to see what's on the opposite side of the serial connection; It doesn't care, it's not a PC device.
 
Are you using a true serial port or USB to serial adapter?
 
You should be able to see port activity using putty or telnet.
 
You should be able to grab the RP DB out of windows. I can't remember the path, but I've done it at a customer's site where they admin their own M1 (access control) and they've played musical chairs with IT guys. You'd need to turn on the view of the hidden files in windows also.

The Elk DB is usually in: C:\ProgramData\RP\