ok thanks henrik, yes there is nothing connected to portb 4-7, theres no room for me to add those ports to anything as the ports are blocked by other circuit traces. and yes I was thinking of the INT on portb.0 , but I do see your logic there, since ive made it a tris=1 then it shouldnt change state even if I tell it to in code., thanks for the diagram, if I didnt need the INT and if I could get to the other B pins i would just use the 8 leds direct but I dont have that option so this will work, thanks.