OK. Tried down grading to 1.7.1, 1.7. and 1.6.5 on two sites running on hosting from the same provider (different servers though), same issue…. Could it be a host’s setting????
I just went through deactivating all the plugins again except for ones like Jet Pack, BBpress, and WordPress SEO by yoast. No go. Will unupdate buddypress and try with earlier versions today and post back.