Audacity: Portable will not open WAV files

I've got Audacity 2.1.1 Portable. I have reinstalled it several times. (Downloaded paf and installed over previous installation.) It will not import WAV files. if I have it set to normalize files automatically. It stops on (Waiting for waveform to finish computing..) Reprots Stopped: Import complete. Running an on-demand waveform calculation. 0% complete. If I turn off normalize, it loads fine. And I can successfully run normalize after it is loaded.

I discovered the workaround while writing this.

-----Paul-----