Cubase 5 Startup Sample Rate

Hi

Questions:
Is it possible for cubase to be anything other than 44.1kHz upon start up?
Is this sample rate hard coded and unchangeable until project is loaded?

Situation:
When Cubase 5 starts up it switches to 44.1kHz, regardless if my system is set to 48kHz prior to startup of Cubase.
Changing the default.cpr to be 48kHz makes no difference to the change upon start up.
A side effect of changing Sample rates with my system is a very loud Pop! on occasion this change catches me unaware and haven’t muted the amp. i’t not nice.
Same issue has occurred on XP, win7, and Win10
I use Cubase 5.1.1 and an UR824.

Thanks for any help.
Mike

R.I.P. Florian Schneider-Esleben