MPGuino troubleshooting

I have an Arduino Decimlla wired to a Hantronix 16216 display(16X2) with backlighting. The MPGuino compiles fine and seems to download to the board OK. The middle button is suppose to control brightness but the brightness level to from PIN 9 stays the same. The right and let buttons are suppose to control messages. When pressed, the LED for PIN 13 blinks a few times and then quits. I have successfully uploaded the LED blink programing the past and seemed to work OK. I'm at loss to what the problem is.
MTNMAN