Hi BigD.
I used to get this every time I cleared cache etc and then had to reset all the things on the drop down game options . You have to remember to save before you close the options box though, it fair flummoxed me for a while.
I know thats not the answer you were probably looking for, so heres another thing that happened to me, back in maybe October 2010. Every time I shut the PC down, I would get this very same problem whenever I came to re start and have a game. My fix has been to leave the PC running all the time, constant. I also no longer bother to clear cache and stuff because I get unexpected and unwanted results from that for a few days as well. My last clearance was maybe February and I havent had any more than maybe 5 or 6 meter thingies, and even those were pretty lame and I recovered from them without loss. I know that forever I will not be able to claim "Metered!" in any multiplayer games now, but hey, its mostly my fault what goes wrong anyway.
I can only attribute this behaviour to my own PC and systems, since this does not appear to happen to everyone.
Heavy handed remedy I know, but if it works...don't turn it off lol