Your right Andy, when the card is inserted the LCD screen should at least burst into life - although I have standard card and loom on my bike.
Has the wire splice been done? Would he need to do this before the PGM would recognise the card?
Also is the card also the correct one for the PGM (matched the numbers from the pgm when ordered). My guess is that if its the wrong card then it wont recognise it and do nothing.