ok fixed this one myself
Using the information given by shoggy here:
Aquaero 5 LT Fail--Firmware 1014 / Beta 6 bricked it!
I performed the check on my mouse polling rate (having a Razer Mamba mouse). Even though I don't ever install the razer drivers it looks like the polling rate was set to 500hz!
I installed the Razer driver software, set the polling rate to 125Hz, used the tool shoggy supplied to check it and re-ran the firmware upgrade program.
yaaay! - All worked great!.
Thanks for the information shoggy, but I think either yourselves or Razer should address this driver issue, taking into account most high-end watercooled systems are used by gamers and have these Razer mice alongside your Aqua-aero product. The interesting thing here for me is that I never ever install the razer driver - so how the polling rate on the ports 'magically' changed to 500Hz - I don't think its their driver to blame.....