scook
The buffer problems could be the result of NOT using fast bounce. It is difficult to determine from the OP if fast bounce is always off. Also, instead of turning off Ozone, try bypassing the FX bin (the option is in the FX bin context menu). Although, I would try fast bounce first.
 
Have you tried bouncing to a stereo track in the project and exporting just that track?

So you're saying it's better to use fast bounce when rendering a project down to a stereo wav file?
I've never used the fast bounce in rendering an entire project, only on individual tracks.

I'll also try bouncing to a stereo track, and exporting that.  But when creating an MP3 file, I find it's easier and quicker to do it as an "Export audio" function.

Leee
So you're saying it's better to use fast bounce when rendering a project down to a stereo wav file?
I've never used the fast bounce in rendering an entire project, only on individual tracks.

Noel has written about this on several occasions, here is one from http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3094164

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
Unlike real time bounce, fast bounce is actually immune to dropouts since it scales performance based on cpu availability. A real time bounce will actually drop out if load is too high which can happen if your project is already maxing the cpu since bounce has extra load due to file io...

Leee
I'll also try bouncing to a stereo track, and exporting that.  But when creating an MP3 file, I find it's easier and quicker to do it as an "Export audio" function.

What works is the quickest method. I only suggested the bounce to get past the problems in the current process. It it still possible to export as mp3. Of course an mp3 export creates a wav file as part of its process.
 
Also considerAud.ini which probably was added to my post after you read it.

Get another hard drive. 3/4 is too full except for archiving. 

The dropouts could be caused by memory exhaustion. Try turning off the 64-bit option in the export dialog. That will greatly reduce the amount of memory used during exporting.
 
I don't believe there is any difference in memory usage between slow and fast bounces. The biggest difference is that fast bounces don't care about CPU load or audio buffer size. It just slows down if necessary, which is why a "fast" bounce can sometimes actually be slower than a "slow" bounce, a phenomenon I'd witnessed many times on my old CPU-challenged machine. (Audible bounces are another matter, and much more prone to "dropouts" due to the added overhead of writing to disk whilst filling audio buffers.)

bitflipper
The dropouts could be caused by memory exhaustion. Try turning off the 64-bit option in the export dialog. That will greatly reduce the amount of memory used during exporting.
 
I don't believe there is any difference in memory usage between slow and fast bounces. The biggest difference is that fast bounces don't care about CPU load or audio buffer size. It just slows down if necessary, which is why a "fast" bounce can sometimes actually be slower than a "slow" bounce, a phenomenon I'd witnessed many times on my old CPU-challenged machine. (Audible bounces are another matter, and much more prone to "dropouts" due to the added overhead of writing to disk whilst filling audio buffers.)

Thanks, I was going to ask about the 64 bit option.  I know a lot of people ask about that here, but unfortunately for me I never paid attention because I never was having a problem like this before.

I always assumed that the fast bounce needed more memory to get it done faster.  Well, just file this under:  You learn something new every day.  Thanks!  I'll give it a try.