screen blinks every 5 sec. in 4.3 during automation record

Greetings!

Running ASUS desktop with AMD Quad-core, 3.0Gh/core, Windows 10. OS and executables are on a SSD, there’s a 7200 rpm HDD for storage, and 16 GB of ram. It has a gaming-level graphics card, and I keep the wifi, etc. turned off. I have optimized it for audio recording.

My Nuendo 4.3 is doing the weirdest thing EVER! I started to record automation to an audio track, and every 5 seconds, the screen winks briefly and the slider jumps back to it’s default position. I have to grab the slider again, but it’s already caused a spike in the gain for that track. Here’s what I’ve noticed so far:

  1. The VST Performance meter doesn’t move at all when this happens.
  2. In Task Master (Windows 10) it shows NO change in either the CPU or RAM meters.

I suspected it might have something to do with having too much animation going on, so I closed the transport window, muted all the input channels in the mixer, etc. I see there are some tiny little green signal meters on each channel that are animated, but no clue on how to shut those off.

I’m STUCK if I can’t automate the volume levels of individual tracks in the mix.