Tom,
that symptom tells me that perhaps there is an ENV: variable problem. Next
time you get it working, from a fresh install, try doing the following command
from a shell:
Copy ENV: ENVARC: ALL CLONE
That will copy all the env: environment variables in your RAM: to the
Env-Archive in Prefs, so they are refreshed between reboots.
BTW, I picked up a file that purports to move ENV: to your harddrive so that
problems like this go away. It's got a couple of glitches which I'm working on
right now.