My question is can these cables have shorts actually in the cable or it more likely to be the actually connections or the soldering?

The cable problems are usually (always?) a problem with the connectors on the cable not being crimped properly,

The intermittant nature of your problem suggests it could be a badly crimped connector, or just as likely a bad solder joint on the IDE header on the motherboard.

I wouldn't bet on one over the other -- but the problem is highly likely to be one of the two.

tanstaafl.