now... You probly wont like this suggestion.. but here goes.
usually if I have a problem.. I just reinstall CEP, right on top of the old one, and it cures it. But if it doesnt....
Id do a clean reinstall. This is too weird to be a regular old incompatability problem.. besides, plenty of peeps run both those progs together... odds are that shit has just built up to the point that it cant hang anymore.
DO you have 2 hard drives?? Ideally, you do.. and you use ONE for audio storage only.. and the other for your OS and ALL progs.. including CEP. Ive never heard of partitioning CEP seperate from your OS... and it seems like it wouldnt help.. in fact it seems like it would slow your shit down, considering CEP and your OS need to interact....BUT Ive never tried it, so I dont really know!
Anyway... if you have 2 hard drives.. Id back up everything, wipe the shittier of the two, and reinstall everything on it... including MSIM and CEP. Usually, I install my audio progs LAST.. because then Im sure their preferences are the last ones to get set, you know?
If you only have ONE drive, and you cant get another... wipe it, create 2 partitions... and put all your progs and OS in one, all your storage in the other.
Once you have a clean install.. its way easier to figure out why things work or not.
xoxo