Hi mb0
I don't know what the problem is, but I will make a couple of comments.
1. Are you sure it's not running? If you start top or execute ps, does it show up?
2. I don't know what those commands do, but if their execution time is short, you will suck up a lot of CPU cycles.
If that's the case, it might be slowing down another process that is trying to start up, maybe one you are relying on.