[billbo911]

Originally Posted by CryptoStorm

ok... so like 10 minutes before we had to pack the robot up for shipment, the students were pushing the robot across the floor (generating that slight amount of current) which fried all 4 of our IR boards... so i took all 4 of them off, and shipped without them...
...
The only thing i believe it could be is the PIC. Might it need reprogramming? replacing?

Thank you for your time in advance
-Joshua M. Stilwell
Electronics Mentor
Team 1254

I think you may have nailed the source of the board failures. Unless a switch has been placed in line with the IR board to open the +12 supplied to it, (as suggested in Team Update #10) pushing the robot will generate power to the board at various voltages. When that voltage is in the ~ 3vdc range, it can corrupt the programming.
There are a couple options:
1) It can be reprogrammed at the regionals. They will be using a modified version that protects the code from being corrupted by low voltage.
2) You can get rid of the IR board entirely and just use a single Vishay IR sensor. Add Kevin Watson's IR code. It will take all of 20 minutes to do this if you have the sensor. (Hint: there were several in the 2004 KOP).
All the details for this can be found in this thread.