Troubleshooting Sportline 660 HRM

Does anyone else have this HRM that could help me out?

My husband bought a Sportline Cardio 660 HRM for me but I can't get the blasted thing to work. When I synched the chest strap with the watch, it reads my heartbeat fine but once I set it to track heart rate and calories burn.. I get squat. Not even a little flicker out the heartbeat symbol. Even tried it again mid workout.. when synching the heart symbol was flickering like crazy, the watch told me it was synched.. tried to set it and nothing. I put saliva on it [as suggested since I dont have the gel], I got all sweaty while working out, Im not hairy, Im not shedding any skin [like the book suggests the issue could be] and it was on tight enough.

I don't know what else to do. The manual is a thin little thing and doesn't suggest anything else. I can't think of anything else to do for it.