Supervivi Menu Display Unreadable

I have 2 Mini2440 boards, one that was purchased over a year ago and one
that was purchased 6 months ago.  I am having trouble getting the supervivi
menu to display on the newer board.  I can clearly see the menu on the old
board at 115200 bps, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control.  As
soon as I change to the new board with the same buadrate setting the
supervivi menu displays gibberish.  

I found that changing the baudrate to 7 bits, even parity, 1 stop bit, no
flow control, has helped to display the characters in the menu, but this
solution does not always work.  

I have also attempted to slow down the baudrate to 9600 (using supervivi on
the old board), but I cannot get this to work. I was hoping to make this
change on the old board first, then make it on the new board try and solve
the problem described above.  The settings on my desktop are still at
115200 and I still receive the supervivi menu from the old board.  

Does anybody have any advice, or encountered the same problem?

Which version of mini2440 1GB?  Do you know which touchscreen is on it? 
Did the newer unit on ever work?  Did it come with working software on it?

This device is the 256MB NAND flash that uses the X35 LCD screen.  I
believe the screen is made by Sony.  This unit has working software on it
loaded from the factory.  

I have resolved the issue, by using the serial port connected directly to
the motherboard.  I was initially using a USB-to-Serial cable.  

It appears that there are different MAX232 chips on these 2 mini2440
boards, and the newer board uses a lower quality chip made by Sipex (U17 on
the schematic).  The old board uses a much better chip made by intersil. 
Lesson learned be careful with USB-to-serial cables.  

I still do not know why the baud rate did not change when I changed it in
the Supervivi menu.

Usually USB-to-serial adapters get blamed if there are any problems.  Any
reference for the quality comment (Sipex/Intersil)?

Sorry, it has been a year or more since I used Supervivi and even when I
was, I never changed the buadrate.

We have done internal testing to compare the serial communication signal of
the 2 boards and found that the slew rate is much slower in the board with
the Sipex chip than the board with the Intersil chip.  We will be replacing
the Sipex chips on these boards with Intersil chips and verifying that this
solution solves the problem.  I will get back to you with the results after
we have replaced this part.  

The baudrate is just a curiosity, and I do not plan to explore it any
further.

After replacing the Sipex chip with the Intersil I can now use my
USB-to-serial adapter to receive the Supervivi menu.

TimD,

Thanks for reporting back.

Had a closer look and I have a SIPEX chip as well. SP3232EEN, batch
818HLB868.  Was yours the same part number? My board is about 2 year old.

Would you reply with the full Intersil part number?
Cheers,
Dave

Dave,

My SIPEX chip number is:
SP323EEN
101HLB868

We purchased 12 of these boards over 6 months ago.  This part is in
compatible with the HL-340 USB-to-Serial cable.  We have replaced the SIPEX
chip with Intersil 3232ECBNZ.  

Regards,

Tim