PW3 Serial port not working

[WaseemAlkurdi]

Hi!

Background:
I'm trying to jailbreak my newest acquisition, a White Paperwhite 3.
I've dismantled it (the easy part), but the serial port doesn't seem to provide output.
A multimeter test shows that it has an output of ~1.2 volts (+/-). (It wasn't the usual 1.8 volts).
A continuity/flow test causes the multimeter to beep, indicating that there is flow.
However, the serial adapter is not sending any output to Minicom.

A picture:

Kindle                      Adapter
======                      =======
Blue (Tx)                   Pin labeled Rx, 2nd pin from adapter left
Pink (Rx)                   Pin labeled Tx, 3rd pin from adapter left
Gray (third Kindle pin)     Tried connecting as (a) Ground (b) Vcc - 4th pin from adapter left (c) to nothing)
Red (ground under screw)    GND - last pin from adapter left
TP1706 as red cabe (ref)    Vcc - 4th pin from adapter left

What I tried:
1. Connecting the TP1706 reference battery voltage pin (via the non-soldered red cable) to ground and to the Vcc pin (4th pin from adapter left). Doing the latter would make the adapter freak out (the two adapter LEDs would illuminate, and Minicom would print "Cannot open /dev/ttyUSB0") until I remove the offending connection.
2. Connecting the gray cable as ground and as adapter voltage (yikes! But I know better now).

What was expected to happen:
A serial connection, flashing adapter Rx and Tx LEDs, or at least noise on the terminal.

What did happen:
Nothing on terminal, except for two (only two) characters of noise. (These: �� )

What I suspect and reasons to eliminate each suspicion:
1. Bad solder ---> but it does produce a reading on the multimeter and continuity tests.
2. Adapter, since I misplaced it for some time ----> see below

Why I believe the adapter isn't toast:
It does the following:
1. Its LEDs blink twice when connecting the adapter (even if the terminals were disconnected)
2. It is detected by Linux and Minicom
3. It did print out two characters of noise.
4. Connecting it prints the following lines in dmesg:

[69045.337976] usb 2-3: new full-speed USB device number 110 using xhci_hcd
[69045.492152] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001, bcdDevice= 6.00
[69045.492158] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[69045.492162] usb 2-3: Product: FT232R USB UART
[69045.492165] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: FTDI
[69045.492167] usb 2-3: SerialNumber: A5XK3RJT
[69045.495635] ftdi_sio 2-3:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[69045.495747] usb 2-3: Detected FT232RL
[69045.496525] usb 2-3: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

while disconnecting it prints this:

[69122.286060] usb 2-3: USB disconnect, device number 110
[69122.286254] ftdi_sio ttyUSB0: error from flowcontrol urb
[69122.287009] ftdi_sio ttyUSB0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
[69122.287076] ftdi_sio 2-3:1.0: device disconnected

What should I do now?

UPDATE: It just worked. Spontaneously. Miraculously. I haven't the slightest clue as to why. The only thing I had done before it started working is to shake the cables ... but I did that like two gazillion times before that.

I'd appreciate it if a mod deletes this thread.