bperrybap:
Ok one other thing that looks very strange in your photo is the 16 pin header.
I see that the short part of the header pins and plastic is on top of the LCD PCB.
with the longer pins going through the LCD PCB.
This is quite unusual.
Compare the difference in looks between your setup and the pictures
on the adafruit tutorial. (in particular the 3rd photo down)
While the header can be inserted this way and the long pins soldered on the bottom,
normally the the plastic is under the LCD PCB and the short pins are soldered on the top.Did you follow the tutorial and solder the pins to the PCB or are you just sticking the header through the
holes in the LCD PCB and into the bread board?--- bill
My header strip was not long enough so I added an extra, I must have placed it in the wrong way. I will change it around and see if it makes a difference. Also no, I have not soldered it. I have never soldered anything and would rather be able to reuse this breadboards. Also will soldering really do anything other than make it permanent?