This one looks more like a broken board to me. If the console is blank (and assuming the port and cable are fine), that must be something really low-level.
I'd suggest you to start a new thread on this, describing the expansion board you have, the way you power it (USB or wall adapter) and maybe shooting a short video with a phone or something, showing all the connections and what's happening when it starts (including LEDs) - that would be a good start to troubleshoot this one.
As far as the ad-hoc network is concerned, yes, it's possible to setup Edison to serve as an access point. I don't have any specific instruction at hand, but I think I saw threads on this in the community. The keyword here is "hostapd", which is the daemon behind this functionality. Just search the community for that or "edison access point" - and I see there are quite a few things coming up by these. And as usual - if nothing you find works, just start a new thread, someone will help you, the community is really active these days
EDIT: Oh and I'm glad we've revived your first board, now on to some cool projects!
