PS, another thought about the weird behavior: I use 24 or 26 ga wire on the strips to carry the amps. If you're using too thin of a wire gauge, the full power needed isn't reaching the strips, that can cause unusual behavior too. To test this, with the prism on, measure voltage coming out of prism with multimeter. Then measure voltage the first pads of your strips. Then measure voltage at the tip end of your strips. They should all be relatively close, and if not, you're losing juice somewhere (like in thin wires).

Check all 3 connections at board and on strips (positive, negative, and data) for good connections. Flow them again, make sure that the joints are shiny after you hit them. Cold solder joints can cause weird behavior. If you have assorted resistors lying around, you can try different resistors on the data line. I have found great success using 470 ohm, but have heard of people running anywhere from 100-500, and a few that don't use data line resistors at all (I wouldn't do that).

PS, thin gauge wire is fine for the data line, but not for the power and return to the strips.

Tom