Thanks Barry. Yes, have tried a reset by holding power button for 8 seconds, but alas to no avail.
Also tried switching off power button at rear of machine for 30 secs. Still no good. Software is up to date, so I have no idea how to get it back to loading the recordings in seconds instead of minutes.
Managed to fix my problem. Reset back to factory settings under “Device Management”. It erased everything on the hard drive, but I couldn’t access any of it anyway – so no biggie.
`I hope this helps someone that may have the same problem as me.