OK, I got a new menu as I forgot to unplug the VGA to see if HDMI would work. I got a cmos checksum error menu and it listed 4 options. defaults, last known good, profile 1, profile 2. number 2 was the default option, the last known good which is why it was not seemeing to clear the BIOS as it was loading it back in. or maybe the clear DMI during flash was doing this before?
Anyway, I think I'm just going to RMA this board. It should have worked by now. I'll call newegg and see if they'll let me cross ship a new one.
Thanks again for all you guys' help.
-=Mark=-