Edit 2:
With some messing around i think i've found the culprit. One of the sticks was drawing 3.7 amps at 5v!! Even while running at 600mhz for a test it went over 3.58amps. Guessing this one is defected

Core voltage and memory both are at 0.8-0.82. This stick won't hash above 2.6-2.68MHash, so i'm hoping bitshopper.de has some sort of warranty for DOA sticks...
You can put a command in the command line that turns on the log. In the log it will state how many cores are good. 63 is the correct number. Check that stick and see how many cores are working.
Per the boss

Put "-D 2>log.txt" at the end of the bat command. Start it up and it will spit out the log.txt file in same directory. In there you will see startup sequence and it checks for number of active cores. Should say 64.
It is 0-63 so it should say 63 not 64.
Bob
Thanks! Useful stuff

With the 7 MLD's still in the hub they all get 63 cores. One is slower than the others (slows down over time) though so it still could be a power issue. The 8th MLD currently is not connected so will test that tomorrow, but i've tried that one on a separate hub (even separate computer) which used to power 2 MLD's without issue and with this one it just wouldn't work. Curious to see if on that one all 63 cores are functioning

And if so, why is that one running so slow and failing so often, even when on a separate powered hub :S