Erik is right. Devices come from the factory with the status byte set, so on power up they are in ISP mode. If you cannot communicate with the device then there is something stopping the data getting from your PC to the device.
Power up your device
Connect to it using Hyperterminal with: 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control, 9600 baud.
Send a single 'U'.
Is the 'U' echoed back? If not then you need to put a scope on the TxD and RxD pins to see if the 'U' is getting to the device at all and if it is, whether it is also coming out of the device at all.