Ok, I figured out what is causing the issue, and yes, it is within my system. I have a self-created piece of security software that runs in the background, and it was interfering with the Blender rendering. I've added Blender 3.01 to the ignore list, and everything is running fine now. I'd forgotten that I had already added the previous Blender versions to the file! Ah, one of the joys of growing old!

There doesn't seem to be any other users who are reporting this problem. So, it could very well be an issue within my system. The files in question do have proprietary value, but I will create a new file and if the issue does still exist, it will be post. I will report back, either way.

For information - All the files in question were initially created using version 2.8 and progressed through version 2.9, and finally 3.0. The user preferences are very basic only affecting scene setups: lights, light positions, and cameras. Normally Cycles is the preferred rendering engine, however EEVEE was used in error and that is how this issue was discovered.

Actually, it is not just this file. Others were rendered for test purposes.

Some additional information - I rendered a copy of the same file using version 2.93.5 without any issues.

While EEVEE rendering a maximum of 38% of the GPU VRAM is being used.

Reinstalled Blender 3.01 and processed the same file. As with Versions 3.1 Beta and 3.2 Alpha, the GUI will temporarily show "Not Responding," and white out. However, the program will recover when rendering is complete. The render time was 29 seconds, 114 MBs memory used. After the re-installation all settings were left at default with the exception of the above posted EEVEE settings.

Processed same file using Versions 3.1 Beta, and 3.2 Alpha. Both versions will render the file; however, it will temporarily show "Not Responding," and white out. The GUI will recover when rendering is complete. CPU load 5%, and 155 MB memory used (interesting). The render times for both are approximately 36 seconds. File size is 11.7 MB. Cycles has no issues.

This happens when the finished scene is processed. There are no issues when processing the default cube. When the rendering is started the CPU (3.5 GHZ, no OC) is under 100% load, and continues to be until terminated. The GUI whites out, and shows “Not Responding” (looping?) (a threading issue?). According to Blender, 794 MB of Ram is being used. The system has 32 GBs installed, and the Graphics Card has 6 GB. The system has 26.6 GB available memory while processing. And again, there are no issues when rendering using Cycles.