My question is can these cables have shorts actually in the cable or it more likely to be the actually connections or the soldering?
The cable problems are usually (always?) a problem with the connectors on the cable not being crimped properly,
The intermittant nature of your problem suggests it could be a badly crimped connector, or just as likely a bad solder joint on the IDE header on the motherboard.
I wouldn't bet on one over the other -- but the problem is highly likely to be one of the two.
tanstaafl.
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