Well, I've not experienced the same thing, but I think the first line of defense is usually:
1. See if you're low on space on your scratch volume(s). You need quite a bit. Also check your available memory.
2. Try powering everything completely off, and see if that fixes it (after you turn it back on!).
3. Kill the preferences file, and see if that does it.
Option (4) is to re-install, which is never fun...