Thanks Graeme, well i am back up and running again. I removed the x axis stepper cable completely and it tested fine, i then rewired it using different connectors and fired it up, all seems to be running fine at the moment, but it was running fine last time i replaced the chip for a good few hours too, so we will see what happens. I have switched the over the x axis stepper cables so that if it is a problem from the motor/ cable it should blow a different driver next time and atleast i will have narrowed it down a bit more, if the same driver blows i can probably assume its more something inside the control box.

Thanks for all the help so far, fingers crossed :-o