Reset Prefs, no change. 12.0.30 all ok.
It feels so random… Why?
It might be helpful to list your operating system and computer specifications.
After more fiddling, I uninstalled Cubase Pro 12.0.40
Installed Cubase Pro 12.0.30.
Same issue occurring. It’s so weird and random.
Installed CCleaner, cleaned up as much as possible, fixed registry, Installed latest NVidia Studio drivers, no change. I’m lost really, not sure what to try anymore.
my specs:
Win 11
AMD Ryzen 5950x
Asus ROG X570-E
128 Gb Ram
RTX 3080 Ti
Fireface UFX Asio
the same thing happened to me last week, 10 to 30 sec to open KeyCommand, while Cubase frozen, I removed default / user pref… / key command / key commands presets… but didn’t work
Then removed Cubase 12_64 Folder
C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase 12_64
Luckily I had a new backup for this folder and I didn’t lose my settings when replace it.
The Number 1 thing to do when troubleshooting Cubase is to start up in Cubase safe mode which provides options to try starting the program with initialized settings, or without 3rd party plugins.
Using Cubase Safe Mode is a standard mode that should be used first thing when trouble hits. If you don’t know about it, simply search for Cubase safe mode on the Steinberg website, or in any search engine.
None of the things @mihnelis tried touch the Cubase settings.
Also, since sequencers and daws are specialized, and are unlike many other programs, using the Steinberg Knowledgebase is very informative, and many questions that are asked here on the forum, are answered there. So it should be your first stop.
Well Steve,
You could have wrote how to start Cubase in safe mode faster than it took you to write that whole paragraph about searching about it online. But fear not, I already knew how to do that as this was the first thing I did actually and it didn’t help at all since I’ve already manually reset the preferences as stated in my main post and disabling the plug-ins also had no effect. I fail to see how this does not “touch the Cubase settings”.
I’m not sure how the rest of your post about searching the database could actually help me in any shape or form.
I’ve been postponing to upgrade the capacity of my system M.2, but now I’ll have to make it a priority. I’ll have to reinstall everything and this will probably solve the issue, but damn, it’s like the worst possible fix there is 
Ah, yes. oof 
Apologies.
I only have some guesses and generic suggestions, like, firewire driver, earlier graphic driver version if poss., that sort of thing.
I hear you. But it will be fixed in that case.