good & bad news.
unplugged the ssd sata cable from the mobo, booted, hitting delete, no dice.
uninstalled the 980, installed my 660...result?
almost instant boot time & access to the bios after hitting delete.
why the long boot times and non access to the bios?
the 980 performs fine when the pc is booted.
i am planning to use this 980 with another one for sli, when i build my new pc with a new mobo.
but for now, what to do?
edit:
i have read around that some people that have had similar issues have resolved it by flashing their bios.
i have not done this since installing this current mobo, so maybe this is why?
mobo:
gigabyte h61ma-d3v
rev. 2.1
bios ver. f4
there are updates for it, so maybe it is not up to spec and it does not recognise the 980, as it is quite recent?