"The problem must have been the hyper terminal"

Yes, that is a very common experience!
If you try a 'Search' for "Hyperterminal" on this forum, I think you'll find that most references are derogatory!

However, you should also note that trying to do register-level calculations in 'C' is not guaranteed to succeed!
If you specifically need to load a value into the Accumulator, and then immediately test the PSW Parity bit (as in your example) you'd be better off doing it in assembler.