I will try to address the latest remarks/suggestions.
     Time.is:  correct time shown, Mienburg working fine
      Audio stuff (speakers, microphone, sound cards) excluded from virus scanning
      WSJT-X and JTAlert both excluded from virus scanning
      Definitely on FT8, not "accidentally" switched to FT4, Also, when switching to other modes, am seeing the same compressed waterfall situation.
      Have tried various " N-avg" settings and get the same result, compressed waterfall and no decode.
      As previously stated by me, every time I attempted different settings, downloaded new drivers, etc., etc., I always restarted the programs AND the computer.

Regarding "turning off" stuff running in the background on the computer;  where can one get a list of what can and should not be turned off?  Obviously nothing from Microsoft would be worth looking at because they would not want "their" stuff turned off.  In Task Manager, there is a boat load of running background processes.  How does one know what is safe to turn off or disable?  I would not hesitate to turn things off if I knew it wouldn't stop my computer from working.

73s
Joe Wallace, W7RNX