I'm using a TC1262-3.3VDBTR as my voltage regulator. I've tried powering the project with a 9v and my 3.7v, no difference. I'll try out a 3 pack of AA's and report back if that makes a difference.
As for the pins, that's what I'm trying to find out. Every guide seems to have a different write-up of which pins need to be tied to what. I'll see what I can do to get the pins tied up the way the guide you sent along shows, but it's markedly different from other guides (like this one, which just claims GPIO15/low GPIO2/high for normal operation: Home · espressif/esptool Wiki · GitHub)
What's maddening is that this is my second version of this PCB, and the first version worked fine without any of this extra stuff. I just plugged in my AA pack (same voltage regulator) and it booted and worked. I didn't tie any GPIOs to high/low ahead of time and had zero resistors on the board.