Bob - Lol! I feel so... used. Dave - thanks - I've only got M Audio checked.

Did you install the X2a update? 

Yes a couple weeks back. not been any more have there?

No, not yet.

It's become fairly automatic for me to hit 'E' if during a session I want to record additional material (this is fairly typical for the way I work) then re-enable all Fx once I've finished recording

You could also swap out the performance killing plugins during tracking with less resource-demanding ones, then for post-tracking use the ones meant for use post-tracking.

That way, you can still have effects in place during tracking, rather than just bypassing them all.

Bob Bone

you might also consider upgrading to win 8. it seems to handle resources better than 7, and the upgrade is easy.