Hi JookieCola,
OK, power supply fixed computer and good news! VST plugins now work.
For those who may also experience problems with VSTs, the following may help. First, understand on Windows there are 32bit and 64bit programs and they have different folders.
There are two versions of JRiver - 32bit and 64bit.
Make sure you download the correct version! This may seem obvious. However, if you are like me and have spent 30+ on Macs and you see a download
BUTTON that says "WINDOWS DOWNLOAD", you select it. But NOOOOOOO! Don't do it if you want the 64bit version of JRiver. You must keep reading down the downloads page and there you will find a
TEXT link to download the 64 bit version. Note the download
BUTTON for Windows doesn't say anything about 32 bit, nor does the text. If you make this simple mistake due to JRiver's method of presenting information, you may spend hours reading forums why you can't make things happen in JRiver and starting needless threads for help!
How do you know if you installed the wrong version of JRiver? Help > About Media Center...> Title will state "(64 bit)" for the 64 bit version.
NOTE: If you have the 32bit version, it will not say anything about 32bit!
As for VSTs, they are pretty simple. It seems all VST "installers" do is move the VST .dll file to the C: drive and hopefully you are paying attention to where it installs or directing the installer to the correct folder. For VSTs, just realize they are also 32bit or 64bit. As long as you point JRiver to the .dll file, it should work. Howevever, the question is where is the .dll file? For good housekeeping, you may want to create two VST folders. I created one for 64bit .dll files (C:\Programs\VSTplugins) and one for 32bit .dll files (C:\Programs(x86)\VSTplugins. Then I went looking in other VST host I had installed and the Steinburg folders and put all the .dll files I could find in the two respective folders I created for VSTs. All is good now. And in the future, all I have to remember is if the VST is 32 bit or 64 bit, then it should be obvious where to find it.
This video helped me, but problably could have been 4 minutes shorter:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=22&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjY_deG-ePcAhVq_4MKHWmOBxYQwqsBMBV6BAgAEAc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Df5xR5-OhsSs&usg=AOvVaw3HDlauLzZu-iB7WG1p6GztHope this helps someone else save hours of needless troubleshooting.