my picaxe 28X1 keeps detecting a false signals and starting the next program segment, however it doesn't do it whn it connected to the download cable. does anyone know how to stop this?
Try decoupling capacitors across the supply pins, 10n and 100n and also a 100n on the reset pin. I had a similar problem to yours a while back and this fixed the problem. I use decoupling caps as standard now on all picaxe projects.