Playback stretches audio slows tempo and lowers pitch

Upgraded from Artist 8.5 to Artist 9.5. When i load a project and push play, the whole song time stretches and it both lowers the tempo and lowers the pitch accordingly. I even tried creating a new project with one imported, stereo wav file and it does the same thing. PC, Windows 10 (64 bit), AMD Phenom II, 16GB DDR3 RAM, 3TB 7200 RPM HD @ only 21% capacity, stock Realtek audio card on chipset running latest Realtek ASIO Codecs. Same setup I was running on Cubase Artist 8.5 with no issues. Any ideas or suggestions sincerely appreciated!

Hi and welcome,

Make sure the sample rate of your project is equal with the sample rate of your Audio Device, please.