Sorry to the professionals that are going to yell at me for even bringing up this solution.
I would never yell unless at you for doing it. I have, however, warned you against it. It may work, and it may not, as I stated.

I WOULD, however, yell, scream and a few things more if you posted "breadboarding is the way to go, it always works" since that has been proven patently false. Often the fact that somebody post that something "works" lead weak souls to believe that as a universal truth.

When things get tough, sometimes you need to go beyond the safe methods (you should see some of my "reworked" PCBs for prototypes), just be aware that if something is erratic that could be because of the place where you go beyond safe, not necessarily your design or code.

As an example of "unsafe behaviour" i have one instance where there is no room for my ICE. So I use an "extender cable" and have occasional false displays when that cable is used. Because i know the cause and know that without the cable all is OK I just ignore the occasional false displays and the signs work when the proper connections are used.

Erik