I would like to add to what Mario just said. You mentioned this earlier in your post:

"But now after restarting my computer I'm getting a sample rate mismatch error message. Upon investigation I see that somehow the setting for the digital interface got changed from my Tascam to Realtek. I have no idea how this got changed. I certainly didn't change it. And I only got the sample rate error message this morning but my problem has existed for a few days. Thinking about this, it seems to make sense why no audio would play at all but that I did have very sluggish command response. I changed it back to my Tascam and things [so far] are working properly."

Windows 11 set my internal soundcard sample rate to 48khz and I usually always work in 44khz 24 bit as I don't do video. I would get that error message as well when I would start up BIAB. Just a thought of why you might of been getting that message?

BIAB 2025 Ultrapack- Studio One Pro 7 Windows 11, Mac Mini M4 with Logic Pro 11, Melodyne Studio