Tried everything again, still  no luck.  In Notepad I get nothing out of the controls at all.  Tried uninstalling the USB driver, replugging, computer reinstalls driver or whatever, says it's installed and functioning fine--still nothing.  
Tried watching the ipac during boot up and see no LED light described in the ultimarc website--I got the ipac used, so not sure how old it is, but I don't see an LED anywhere on it.  
The ipac worked fine until the upgrade to XP, now, nothing at all.  AARRGH!