ITS ALIVE!!! With some help from DTR and AnthoT I was able to sort out the problem. It goes to show that being stubborn and impatient sometimes can pay off. I had to remove the IC chip from an old FlexDrive and use it to replace the one on the 445 driver. It was painstaking and took the better part of 2hours to do, but it worked! I'm going to solder in a diode on the positive lead to avoid this happening again, then im taking a break cuz my friggin eyes hurt from squinting at these tiny little solder joints.