03 Silverado flyin blind

[69gmcc10]

I am having issues wit my instrument cluster and no it isn't the stepper motors. Please read along and help me try and diagnose this issue, I appreciate it.

To give you as complete of a history as far as I know it, here is the pertinent info

1) I bought the truck this summer and the shift indicator worked intermittently. Not a problem, I just figured that it was a loose connection in the board

2) November, the cluster once stopped working (no gauges, no shift indicator, not odometer read out, but the back lighting on the gagues work) and then they started again within a minute. I took the cluster out, cleaned to connections added some di-electric grease and re-installed. It worked like the dickens for about a month, the gear selector indicator even worked more often.

3) In December the issue became slightly more regular. I had the computer flashed by Black Bear performance and the problem continued irregularly, but the radio started resetting every time I turned the truck on (clock would go to 12:00 and run through all of the cds in the player).

4) last week the radio stopped resetting every time I turned on the truck, but now I have a 25% chance the cluster will spring to life when I turn the key and hitting it doesn't seem to work but maybe every once in a while.

I researched and found that maybe a weak battery could be a contributing factor but when I check the battery it charge it seems fine.

I am not above buying a new cluster, but I don't want to just throw parts at the truck and find out it wasn't the cluster. Any suggestions to help diagnose a specific part failure would be appreciated.

Thanks