it was the FAN sensor!
although running like a freight train, the single fan shipped with my new S7 had a bad sensor so showed null fan speed, which apparently kept cgminer from hashing.
swapped in an old s3 fan and under clocked a bunch to maintain temps and she is happily hashing away.
450Mhz getting a hair over 3TH/s from most recent batch.
does anyone think bitrmain will somehow compensate me if i send in the old fan? aside from sending me a replacement?
i ordered a bunch of parts for some trial and error troubleshooting on my own accord, but i am really only concerned with the two weeks of mining i missed out on.

What temps are you getting with your old S3 fan ? How fast is that fan running, doesn't seem like it can provide enough airflow.