The original thread is marked [SOLVED] - hence I cannot continue the discussion as intended… 
My question is, is it correct to consider the issue “solved”, when in fact trashing our preferences is a work around for something else going on? Yes - trashing the preferences does remove the fault. For how long I do not know.
Have others had to repeat the procedure on a regular basis?
I noticed this symptom:
- Always the 1st(topmost) channel will not allow one to disable the Record Enable button
- every other channel (2, 3, etc) did not have this issue
- If I move the 2nd track to the top position, then that track/channel now displays the same behavior…i.e. its definitely related to location in the arrangement view.
My system : Win 8.1 (64bit) Cubase 7.5.2