Hi S,I am not seeing any of those questions answered in this thread. Again, why are you making it so difficult for others to help you. Even if you need to answer the same questions twicw even three times, it is all of us taking our time to try and help you. Not the other way around.
Sorry again. I must admit, that I have difficulty reading through the threads also.
Do you have a bypass capacitor? I presume you mean on between the pos and neg of the PIC? Yes, a 104 and a 220uF.
How is the circuit wired. Is it a PCB or is it a perf board.? PCB.
If PCB have you checked all of your solder joints? Any cold solder joints? On the PCB there are two slots for similar PICs, both act in the same way. I've checked for tracking between tracks, and continuity byt running a small motor through them where I could.
Hope that everything
C.