Assetbundle Import Issue

I am trying to help a friend get started in Unity, but he has been encountering a very frustrating issue.

Unity Version: 2018.1.9

Issue: He is having an issue importing assetbundles. Regular process utilization and ram usage until .fbx imports. Then unity stalls out to not responding and 1-5% usage. 1.5g gis to 700megs of ram. 18 hours is the longest he let it run importing a 5gb asset package that takes me less than an hour.

He has checked the file integrity. It is fine, and I have not had an issue importing the same bundles.

He has shortened the path in case this was related to path length. It did not change anything.

He has wiped the workstation. He has redownloaded both the assetbundle and different unity versions several times.

He is running a xeon e3 1275 v6 32 gigs ecc, with a GTX 1080. A far more powerful PC than I am running Unity on myself.

 

Hello, I am that friend. I am also quite confused.

So far I've stepped down far too many fixes for the problem to remain.

Fix 1, reinstall editor.
Fix 2 Reinstall Editor and Package on New SSD, alone.
Fix 4 Try new files.
Fix 5, Reformat Workstation, Perform virgin Install of just unity and system drivers.
Fix 6... Confusion and blind stumbling.

So far i'm at [EDIT: 14 hours] to import 5 gigabyte package. The Import moves along smooth and fast enough until it hits .fbx other asset packages produce similar lag but were only 2.4 gigs (The book of the dead package worked fine but took forever too)

Anyone have a nugget of wisdom I can go check out? I'm about to check back out of unity because a workflow with 14 hour imports is just not going to happen for me.

 

I've removed myself form unity. SO dont worry about it. Good issue to explore but meh.