[nonsqtr]

This is very strange. The TIMING of the onset of maximum CPU utilization, is different every time I start the machine. I'm starting the Windows Task Manager just before ProTools, and I'm looking at the CPU utilization. Sometimes ProTools gets all the way through startup with perfectly normal-looking CPU utilization, and then it goes nuts immediately when I try to open a session. Sometimes though, it'll start going nuts BEFORE I open anything. It'll get "almost" all the way through the sequence of startup message, and then sometime after the DAE objects are created but before the Midi is initialized, the CPU utilization jumps to 100% and the whole system slows down to a crawl.

So that's where it's at now (a crawl), and I just rebooted the machine and I haven't opened any session yet, and I've got 100% CPU utilization and my PCI bus is saturated, and my file monitor is telling me that I'm touching some files I really shouldn't be touching, like temp files in my internet folder and log files from stuff that's been long since de-installed - it looks like it's just slowly but surely cycling through every file in my system.

This is REALLY BAD - man, I'm going to get SHOT if this ever happens in the field (and I might get shot anyway, if I can't recover my client's files today). I'm very unhappy with ProTools this morning.

Someone please tell me how to fix this, please? PLEEAZE? I'll be your friend for life. Anything I can do for you in the way of vintage audio electronics (which is my specialty), I'll be happy to do, if I can only get my sessions back. Yikes. I need a beer....