PROBLEM SOLVED!!!! 

After agreeing with the last couple of posts, i looked further into connectors to isolate whether problem was the connector or the IC.  After inspecting the J4 (on the 8 driver PCB) one wire coming off it was severed near one of the joiners where a heap of connections are shared.  Obviously was touching in the right place when the problem was intermittent.

On a side note, i got it working then one of the opto's on the idol stopped working....a wire had broken there as well!!

All fixed and working sweet.  Thanks for the help.

I may start another thread about my Jurassic Park over the weekend with a ball trough problem