To clarify... the reason I asked the above question(s) is because it seems to me that if the LCD was displaying any reasonable characters then the LCD was working.
Was it an LCD contrast issue or were the characters complete garbage??

Is it possible that you also fixed something else in your code that was suggested by the other reply's to your questions and that was the real problem??

That is why I asked about what exactly you were seeing on the LCD.

dwight