Problem Solved !
**I'd already mentioned a time or two that I thought my laptop was taking a dump**
Firstly, I'd recommend not wasting your few reactions on this here I'm just sharing.
I could easily write 5 paragraphs of my process of elimination but I'd rather get to the bones of it.
(want any details, i guess pm me for the sake of the thread ?)
One thing I must mention is that btwn March and April I'd DL and installed 290+ asset zips...
never realizing that I possess over 1000 asset zips until I began backing up my files for a hard reset on my laptop.
I was very close to red on my C: drive and had been using 700+ Gb/ 900 Gb D: drive dedicated to Daz.
My conclusion is the number of assets scattered around Daz since I began is the cause of the failure to preview or render.
(results may vary) LOL
But I wouldn't have thought I could place 4 models, beach and sky before now.
I have no plans on pressing my luck, BUT -- my machine gave preview on this within 10 secs. and didn't rofl at me.
I spent 3 hours reinstalling the April zips and quit, so I'll be installing useful assets and redo settings for awhile
Bonsai !