Getting Nrf24l01 modules to work!

Question

I am at my wit's end with these Nrf24l01s. A bit of history: I have ordered about 25 of these, tried the adapter board, read every article, tried every sketch (including Robin's tutorial), powered the modules with a separate power supply.

Has anyone else had these issues? Is there anything anyone has discovered on getting these to work? I am 12 years old and am trying to use these for a science project. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Tnx,
Ricky

edit: I went back to just the simplest "hello world" sketch and I can't even get this to work: nothing received in serial monitor (I did notice the Tx LED is lit in the receiver, is this correct?) Sorry if I posted this wrong.

//Include Libraries
#include <SPI.h>
#include <nRF24L01.h>
#include <RF24.h>
//create an RF24 object
RF24 radio(9, 8);  // CE, CSN
//address through which two modules communicate.
const byte address[6] = "00001";
void setup()
{
  radio.begin();
//set the address
  radio.openWritingPipe(address);
//Set module as transmitter
  radio.stopListening();
}
void loop()
{
  //Send message to receiver
  const char text[] = "Hello World";
  radio.write(&text, sizeof(text));
delay(1000);
}

Receiver:

//Include Libraries
#include <SPI.h>
#include <nRF24L01.h>
#include <RF24.h>
//create an RF24 object
RF24 radio(9, 8);  // CE, CSN
//address through which two modules communicate.
const byte address[6] = "00001";
void setup()
{
  while (!Serial);
  Serial.begin(9600);
radio.begin();
//set the address
  radio.openReadingPipe(0, address);
//Set module as receiver
  radio.startListening();
}
void loop()
{
  //Read the data if available in buffer
  if (radio.available())
  {
    char text[32] = {0};
    radio.read(&text, sizeof(text));
    Serial.println(text);
  }
}