not yet, I was thinking I must missing something obvious that someone could say "check this file"
perhaps not. I'll check with Bill next.
just figured out its a problem with the onsale_sql.php file. the tables weren't created. running the link in my browser didn't work (permissions wrong?) so I had used the sql file upload in the admin and it said it patched successfully. apparently not. at least now I have a lead!
and fixed it. had the permissions wrong, needed 755 on that file to run.