[solved] Export Problems in X3

I finished tracking. I bounced all soft synths, effects, and external gear to new tracks, then deleted all of the original tracks and saved as a new file. This left me with a project file containing 27 tracks of audio, my original markers and nothing else; I had a perfect file in which to start mixing.
My final mix has fader automation on all tracks and panning automated on about half of them. I have quad curve on all tracks, and the s type compressor on each of my three basses and all 7 of my busses. That's about it. All of the 'creative mixing' plugins I put to work during tracking, so nothing else is active. Just to keep things clean I also removed all pro channel processors that were not being used (sonar default has a compressor, eq, and tube saturation on all tracks).
Here's the rub: I am now three hours into a 'what you hear' export (wav, 44.1, triangle dithering from 24 to 16, fast bounce, everything but the 64 bit option selected) and it is less than 10 percent complete. The progress bar still reads 'processing audio data'.
What gives?
The same computer setup cranked out files under X1. In fact, the 27 tracks I bounced from my tracking session all bounced in record time. I've tried numerous combinations of settings in the export menu and all lead to this same unacceptably long export. I also tried messing with the buffer settings in the configuration file, and it killed virtually every process running on my PC that wasn't called sonarpdr.exe. I've already cancelled the thing two hours into an export - twice - thinking I had some magic new idea that would save time. I am inclined to just let it run for the 20 hours it looks like it will take. I've already missed my deadline, what's another day?
Does anyone have any fancy ideas that should inspire me to kill the export and try again for something faster?

So far during this single remix project I foolishly upgrade to X3, thinking it would be a smooth transition, my Axiom49 died and I replaced it with a Nektar Impact LX49 that only works about half the time, and my trusty midisport 8x8 crapped out. I replaced the midisport with an iConnectMidi4+. So far it is all promise and no value as the configuration software crashes every time I try to run it. I think there's a hex on my studio. It might be time to shelve the electronic music for a bit and pull out my acoustic guitars.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any help on the export issues.

I keep what I don't need turned off, indeed. I like a clean interface, though. If it's not being used it has to go.
 
I did try exporting just the first four bars of the piece (by selecting the clips across all tracks within the first four bars). After around 10 minutes and a progress bar that still showed 0% I cancelled the export.
 
The export that is now processing (into hour seven) has all clips across all tracks selected as the export 'range'.  Thinking about your comment further it occurs to me that I selected all of those parts using the handy CTRL+A command, rather than windowing around the clips I wanted. If there is in fact some data sitting at bar 10,000 it would have ended up in my selection set. I vaguely recall seeing the timeline was only greyed out as far as my 'end' marker, though, so I don't think there is any 'far right' data in the selection. Also, when I hit Shift+F to fit all tracks to the screen, my track fits neatly in the available window. I'd expect there would be a lot of blank space to the right side when using this command if there was some data floating way out in the timeline. 
I suppose it's worth verifying, but its not a good enough lead that I'd be willing to risk having to start the current export all over again if it doesn't pan out.
 
Could this be a hard drive fragmentation issue? I defrag weekly, so it seems unlikely. My CPU load shows 25% fairly consistently and the hard drive meter in sonar hangs out around 60%. I can play clean through the track with 2ms buffers and never hiccup. I have my latency around 60ms round trip for export purposes.

Regarding the additional tests notion: should i be able to do other tasks in Sonar while an export is processing? I have the basic Windows7 busy icon in place of my cursor and nothing in Sonar functions while the export is active. I can only hit the little 'X' in the progress window to cancel the export. Everything else is non-responsive.
 
It's hard to imagine a corrupt project would only manifest trouble in exporting. I have no issues playing back, saving, nor loading the project.  Is there a reasonable way to rebuild a corrupt project?  OR do I need to just work backwards through previous versions of the project file until I find one that doesn't exhibit this behavior?
 
I didn't think to dig through the event logs. Seems a long shot but worthwhile.
 
The piece is only 5:06.

Is there anything in your CD/DVD drive? There was a thread a while back where it took forever to render a Kontakt file. As soon as the person removed an optical disc from the drive, the problem went away. Some have reported similar issues if the floppy drive is enabled in the BIOS but there's no floppy drive.
 
I've never had an export take more than a minute or two, and I run some pretty complex projects sometimes.

There's some good ideas popping up here. I'm killing the current render after around 8.5 hours.  I've got to try some of these things. If Craig's 'empty the CD drive' suggestion solves the problem I think i'll pack it in and sell all of my gear.  ...but there is a disc in my drive. I always new Autechre's work was something more than just music.

Something is not right. HW diagnostics sound like a good idea. WRT MIDI connections check this http://www.emusician.com/...id=273&EntryId=962
 

Using a few strategies recommended here - thank you all - I am back in business.
I exported one track at a time until I encountered the track that was stalling the export of the whole. It turns out my vocal harmony track was the problem. I discovered a single clip that had a graphical wave representation that didn't match the actual content of the clip. An obvious glitch, I investigated further. The clip wouldn't bounce nor trim. Remembering that at some point in the past I had worked the clip in Melodyne Editor and later in Audiosnap I surmised that some data must have gotten corrupted in the handoff between the two protocols. Hey- it's the best explanation I have. For giggles, I turned Audiosnap on then off again for the clip. The waveform preview suddenly displayed correctly, the clip could be bounced, and the whole project was exported as desired with a Fast Bounce taking only about 30 seconds.
Woohoo!