Hello all, i have a bit of a dilemma and i need to see if there is anybody that can help!

i am on the home stretch getting an AZSMZ 12864 lcd wired to a ramps 1.4 and now i am up against a wall. i know that this is not a "standard" controller, but it is a brilliant piece of electronics! especially now that you can get one for around $20 shipped, $30 for 2 (the first one i got was 30+ shipping).

anyway...

everything works great except the sd card. i know i am just missing something stupid, but another set of eyes might help me find it. so here are the symptoms:

ramps 1.4
marlin 1.1.8
powered over usb only right now

1. SDSUPPORT disabled - everything is peachy, all works as expected

2. SDSUPPORT enabled - NO card - CD pin NOT connected - SD_DETECT_INVERTED normal
boot screen normal
goes to main screen
there is about 1 sec where everything is functional and then lcd freezes
if left alone, it will show xyz, then ???, then the ? will lose their top row of pixels and then screen is frozen
i can still communicate with board and beep still works with encoder.
serial says:

echo: Last Updated: 2017-12-25 12:00 | Author: (none, default config)
echo:Compiled: Jan 31 2018
echo: Free Memory: 3669  PlannerBufferBytes: 1232
echo:Hardcoded Default Settings Loaded
echo:  G21    ; Units in mm
echo:  M149 C ; Units in Celsius

echo:Filament settings: Disabled
echo:  M200 D3.00
echo:  M200 D0
echo: Steps per unit:
echo:  M92 X80.00 Y80.00 Z4000.00 E500.00
echo:Maximum feedrates (units/s):
echo:  M203 X300.00 Y300.00 Z5.00 E25.00
echo:Maximum Acceleration (units/s2):
echo:  M201 X3000 Y3000 Z100 E10000
echo:Acceleration (units/s2): P R T
echo:  M204 P3000.00 R3000.00 T3000.00
echo:Advanced: S T B X Z E
echo:  M205 S0.00 T0.00 B20000 X10.00 Y10.00 Z0.30 E5.00
echo:Home offset:
echo:  M206 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
echo:Material heatup parameters:
echo:  M145 S0 H180 B70 F0
echo:  M145 S1 H240 B110 F0
echo: PID settings:
echo:  M301 P22.20 I1.08 D114.00
echo:LCD Contrast:
echo:  M250 C225
Error:volume.init failed

3. SDSUPPORT enabled - NO card - CD pin CONNECTED - SD_DETECT_INVERTED normal
stuck at boot screen
monitor reports "SD init fail", and then about a second later "SD init fail" again
can still communicate with board
inserting card has no effect

4. SDSUPPORT enabled - WITH card - CD pin CONNECTED - SD_DETECT_INVERTED normal
stuck at boot screen
monitor reports SD card ok
if i remove card, monitor reports SD init fail

5. SDSUPPORT enabled - NO card - CD pin NOT connected - SD_DETECT_INVERTED
same as #2

6. SDSUPPORT enabled - NO card - CD pin CONNECTED - SD_DETECT_INVERTED
same as #3

7. SDSUPPORT enabled - WITH card - CD pin CONNECTED - SD_DETECT_INVERTED
same as #4

in addition, i have tried half, quarter, and eighth speed spi with no difference in the above outputs.
i know i have to be missing something stupid, anybody have ideas that i haven't tried?