Have spent some more time on this and like Propbeanie there may be multiple Rundll32.exe running. Attempting to start SH3 using SH3 Commander (SH3Cdr) result in the main program stops running but remains active in the Process's list. As noted above, terminating the idle SH3.exe in the File Manager also terminates the SH3Cdr process and then SH3 will run normally with SH3Cdr if you run the latter immediately. Having multiple SH3Cdr does not make any difference, run and terminate any one and any other one will run normally next time.
Curious. This problem seems tied to the Rundll32.exe file, which remains active and eating CPU cycles after exiting SH3. I terminate them manually and doing so even with SH3 running frees up the CPU but does not seem to affect SH3.
Looking at the issue with multiple Rundll32.exe online indicates that the problem may be related to malware but scanning with Malawarebytes and ESET-32 came up clean. I noticed that this SH3 problem started after a Windows-7 update was executed but I cannot honestly determine whether this is causal or coincidental. That others seem to be having similar issues points to some Windows update as being a suspect.
So no cure but a clumsy work-around. I wonder if it is significant that there are no apparent issues with any iteration of SH4 on my machine (FOTRS-U, TMO/RSRD, Stock, Soviet Waterways v110 and Operation Monsun w/Fifi's mod).
Maybe somebody else has better insights.
Chris
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