Hmmmm, interesting reading. I didn't know what to include as info to help you help me, thanks for letting me know.

I guess the first thing to note is that under Edit/GeneralPreferences/Render all I have is SeperateProcess and that was already disabled, threads is 4. Am I looking in the wrong place???

Here is a quickie render to give you an idea of the scene. The camera focal is 55mm and somewhat around chest/head level. The biggest polygon is probably the stone floor. It is actually a cylinder cap that has been subdivided once. So instead of of skinny triangles for the whole there is an edge cut once around, so the outer band is 4 sided polys with the innner band skinny triangles.

Your help is most appreciated and your knowledge is welcomed.

missy woot!