Taken from the Playground site we are mentioning here...I have it in my posting about the scrolling on matrices.....
"By no means these 2 capacitors can be ommitted (Left out), as it might lead to sporadic or permanent malfunctions. These types of errors are really hard to track down. Both capacitors must be placed as near as possible to the V+ and the Gnd pins of the MAX72XX. "
I need to re place the caps closer.....and not just on Vcc and ground planes.....