@Mark_Ortiz It get’s the point across quite effectively, I’d say 
well, I would really like to send you pictures, but I dont think will help a lot. there is a mess of cables around and I dont even have good light for a pic. so if nothing else comes to mind without pic, I think that was it for today. thanks!!!
Why not just get FastLED to light up smaller sections of LEDs at a time? If each smaller (say, 50 LED) section lights up properly then at least you’ve eliminated faulty LED’s.