First - thanks for so many responses
I really appreciate it
So i just did a complete reinstall

Opened a new scene and did a sphere lite by a spot light scene.
rendered fine in all 4 modes
hit alpha and it is fine.

then I opened my problem project.
I hit render in maya software - rendered black screen in render time: 0.001 (Publicfuntion, this is the time it was taking yesterday for all black renders..)
and no alpha.

--- but tried mental ray anyway -- and it rendering fine.
rendertime: 10:50

weird.

So problem semi-solved with a full Regedit purge of anything Maya related and a reinstall.

Maya software still doesn't work on this file (worked for new project)
...but mental ray does.
maya hardware and vector both render in 1:35 and are ugly but visable.

Still wondering what the hell happened