My Christmas star is in jeopardy ! I built a pcb based on 16f877 20 with ports c,d and b connected to darlinton chips, relays etc. Worked like a charm first time. Then whilst reinserting the chip after reprogramming I managed to get the pins out of line and (not surprisingly) everything stopped. I have bought some new 877's and replaced the voltage reg and every attempt to get the dam thing started has failed. I have now been reduced to a simple breadboard with oscillator (20meg) and caps. Pin 1 to Vdd via 1k. LED connected to Rb0 (via 1k to 0v) simple bit of code:
@DEVICE PIC16F877
DEFINE OSC 20
main:
HIGH portb.7
PAUSE 500
LOW portb.7
PAUSE 500
GOTO main
END

I have juggled around with the config settings (which I musy admit are a mystery to my ancient brain) At present the osc is set to XT
I am using an EPIC programmer with software version 2.44 and Micro Code Studio Pic Basic Pro version 2.45.
One other strange and seemingly unrelated mystery. My original code contained the sequence :
High portd.0
High portd.1
High portd.2
etc etc
After the problem occurred every effort at compiling prodce a syntax error on on of the lines - I think it was d.6
I'm sue I must be doing someting utterly stupid but I just cannot fathom out what . Any helpful suggestions would be very welcome
Cheers