Serial write from C++

I'm just getting started with arduino and for my first project I'm trying to use opencv to do facetracking, and move a motor when certain conditions are met. I seem to be stuck on serial write on the visual studio side.

when I use the serial monitor to send eg. "999" it works just fine, but using the C++ code I found online to write to the port doesn't seem to work. I know it connects because the motor does move after I open the com port, but the arduino receives small negative numbers seemingly at random (ie. only occasionally when I do serial.write)

any idea what the problem could be? Been stuck on this for a few days now, clearly I'm missing something..

arduino code:

#include <AccelStepper.h>

AccelStepper motor(AccelStepper::DRIVER, 3,4);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  motor.setMaxSpeed(4000);
  motor.setAcceleration(2500);
}

unsigned int integerValue=0;  // Max value is 65535
char incomingByte;


void loop() {
  if (Serial.available() > 0) {   // something came across serial
    integerValue = 0;         // throw away previous integerValue
    while(1) {            // force into a loop until 'n' is received
      incomingByte = Serial.read();
      if (incomingByte == -1) continue;  // if no characters are in the buffer read() returns -1
      else if (incomingByte < 48 || incomingByte > 57){
        break;   // if not numeric exit the while(1), we're done receiving
      }
      
      integerValue *= 10;  // shift left 1 decimal place
      // convert ASCII to integer, add, and shift left 1 decimal place
      integerValue = ((incomingByte - 48) + integerValue);
    }
    
    if(integerValue > 0){
    Serial.println(integerValue);   // Do something with the value
     motor.move(integerValue);
    }
  }
  motor.run();
}

Serial library

/** Serial.cpp
 *
 * A very simple serial port control class that does NOT require MFC/AFX.
 *
 * @author Hans de Ruiter
 *
 * @version 0.1 -- 28 October 2008
 */

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

#include "Serial.h"

Serial::Serial(tstring &commPortName, int bitRate)
{
	commHandle = CreateFile(commPortName.c_str(), GENERIC_READ|GENERIC_WRITE,0,NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 
		0, NULL);

	if(commHandle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) 
	{
		throw("ERROR: Could not open com port");
	}
	else 
	{
		// set timeouts
		COMMTIMEOUTS cto = { MAXDWORD, 0, 0, 0, 0};
		DCB dcb;
		if(!SetCommTimeouts(commHandle,&cto))
		{
			Serial::~Serial();
			throw("ERROR: Could not set com port time-outs");
		}

		// set DCB
		memset(&dcb,0,sizeof(dcb));
		dcb.DCBlength = sizeof(dcb);
		dcb.BaudRate = bitRate;
		dcb.fBinary = 1;
		dcb.fOutxCtsFlow = 0;
		dcb.fOutxDsrFlow = 0;
		dcb.fDtrControl = DTR_CONTROL_DISABLE;
		dcb.fDsrSensitivity = 0;
		dcb.fRtsControl = RTS_CONTROL_DISABLE;
		dcb.fOutX = 0;
		dcb.fInX = 0;

		dcb.Parity = NOPARITY;
		dcb.StopBits = ONESTOPBIT;
		dcb.ByteSize = 8;

		if(!SetCommState(commHandle,&dcb))
		{
			Serial::~Serial();
			throw("ERROR: Could not set com port parameters");
		}
	}
}

Serial::~Serial()
{
	CloseHandle(commHandle);
}

int Serial::write(const char *buffer)
{
	DWORD numWritten;
	WriteFile(commHandle, buffer, strlen(buffer), &numWritten, NULL); 

	return numWritten;
}

int Serial::write(const char *buffer, int buffLen)
{
	DWORD numWritten;
	WriteFile(commHandle, buffer, buffLen, &numWritten, NULL); 

	return numWritten;
}

int Serial::read(char *buffer, int buffLen, bool nullTerminate)
{
	DWORD numRead;
	if(nullTerminate)
	{
		--buffLen;
	}

	BOOL ret = ReadFile(commHandle, buffer, buffLen, &numRead, NULL);

	if(!ret)
	{
		return 0;
	}

	if(nullTerminate)
	{
		buffer[numRead] = '\0';
	}

	return numRead;
}

#define FLUSH_BUFFSIZE 10

void Serial::flush()
{
	char buffer[FLUSH_BUFFSIZE];
	int numBytes = read(buffer, FLUSH_BUFFSIZE, false);
	while(numBytes != 0)
	{
		numBytes = read(buffer, FLUSH_BUFFSIZE, false);
	}
}

Main

// SerialTest.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>

#include "Serial.h"
#include "stdafx.h"

using namespace std;

#define RX_BUFFSIZE 20

void printUsage(_TCHAR progName[]);


int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{

		try
	{
		cout << "Opening com port"<< endl;
		tstring commPortName(TEXT("COM3"), 9600);
		Serial serial(commPortName);
		cout << "Port opened" << endl;

		while (1){
			Sleep(2000);
			serial.flush();
			cout << "writing something to the serial port" << endl;
			
			char hi[] = "9999!";
			int bytesWritten = serial.write(hi);
			cout << bytesWritten << " bytes were written to the serial port" << endl;
			if (bytesWritten != sizeof(hi) - 1)
			{
				cout << "Writing to the serial port timed out" << endl;
			}
		}

	}catch(const char *msg)
	{
		cout << msg << endl;
	}

	cout << "press any key and enter to quit" << endl;
	char temp;
	cin >> temp;

	return 0;
}

void printUsage(_TCHAR progName[])
{
#if defined(UNICODE)
	wcout << progName << " <comm port>" << endl
		 << "e.g., " << progName << " COM1" << endl;
#else
	cout << progName << " <comm port>" << endl
		 << "e.g., " << progName << " COM1" << endl;
#endif
	
}

geez.. it was a typo. 9600 goes to Serial(), not commPortName()

C++ is a bit rusty, not sure why this didn't trigger a compiler error..