ianpac I had copied the kernels from EFI into the boot directory but not the initrd files so I did not get it working before I reinstalled.
Weirdly having done nothing different from my previous installation I checked the boot folder and now it only has the 2 kernels and initrd files plus the grub folder. No EFI or Bootloader folders. I have no idea how my boot folder looked different previously. No attempt to change anything from the standard setup.
I am thinking I maybe choose UEFI option on the live USB stick?
after following this one for a while I have to first say good job! then I have to say I love when someone has no idea how they succeeded because my successes come that way....choosing uefi in the installer could've been the factor that changed everything here...
....but I get the feeling even of you did nothing different then something got fixed that needed to get fixed in the reinstall, even, perhaps, the kernel.