Penpower Picasso drawing tablet not working...?

I got it for Christmas. At the time, it worked fine. It didn't need anything installed because we have Windows 7 and it works automatically on that. It worked for a couple of months, then one day it just didn't. There's no visible damage (I have kids here, so you never know). But if you plug it in (it has one of the common USB cables as a connector), nothing happens.

Now, I can tell from the searches I've done that it's not exactly one of the top models. But I also can't afford to get a better one, so I'm going to have to try to get this one working again. I can find no help on their web site or anywhere on the internet for this problem. I can't even find anything to try! I did test it with a different cable, but it was not a new one, so that may not help. I submitted a support ticket but I don't feel much hope in that... most product web sites offer a little troubleshooting advice before you ask them for help and this one didn't. They couldn't even spell "technical." Not very encouraging.

Does anyone know anything I can try get it working or at least to help me figure out whether it's the cable or not? So far all I can do is not rule it out.