thanks for the quick reply. no errors, and the bake takes ages! in fact, it takes forever, as it keeps going round and round, doing the bake over and over. the result is always the same – about 1/3 is done, 2/3 isn’t. that was in 2.79b. now trying it in very recent 2.79.6 to see if the same thing happens.
update: exactly the same thing happens on 2.79.6. i guess my file must be corrupted in some way.