weird thing though is that the log file isn't showing the normal signs of mining
Yeah, for some reason those are commented out in the newer version.
If you are building source, you can remove the // from these two lines in main.cpp
printf("testHash %s\n", testHash.ToString().c_str());
printf("Hash Target %s\n", hashTarget.ToString().c_str());
That will show in your debug.log every time you find a test hash, and have it compare against the hash target. If you see those, then yes, you are mining (and you can watch it happen if you watch the debug.log file scroll)