well you've pretty well tried the most straightforward test you can do. And it sounds like there is nothing happening at all. If you have a voltmeter, check the voltage of the batteries in the transmitter and receiver. Transmitter should be about 9.6 and the receiver should be around 4.8. Most transmitters has some sort of meter that you can see when you turn it on. Is the meter showing a reading up in the "green" zone? Also make sure that you are plugging the battery and servo into the receiver the right way. On some connections you can put this backwards. Both brown (or black) wires should be aligned. In other words, the brown wire from the battery and the brown wire from the receiver should be plugged in the same way. If it is not obvious which way, try them both ways. Hooking them backwards will not hurt anything. Also, make sure that there is a crystal in both the receiver and transmitter. They are usually visible from the outside of each. Sometimes the crystals fall out. A crystal is a small part, smaller than a pencil eraser, with two leads coming out of it.