Help with Full Node and Sparrow please!!

Been running a full node now for a few years with Sparrow connected to bitcoin core flawlessly and with zero issues, but I need to switch this all over to a dedicated machine running Win10pro. For reasons I cannot figure out, on this new dedicated machine, Sparrow will NOT connect to Bitcoin core. No matter how many times I reboot Bitcoin Core and Sparrow, wipe them clean and re-install, even wipe the OS clean and re-install multiple times and then re-download and re-install both Bitcoin Core and Sparrow – they will boot up and connect just fine ONLY the first time (solid green slider bar). But after closing Bitcoin core and Sparrow for a system reboot, it then forever hangs with a pulsing green slider bar trying to connect endlessly. This is incredibly time consuming to troubleshoot as I’m having to spend days on a wipe/re-install to download the whole 500GB+ blockchain again, and again.

I wouldn’t be here bitching about this on Reddit - but where else am I supposed to turn to for help? I say that because maybe the most frustrating thing is that the only place to get help seems to be the Sparrow Wallet Telegram channel which shows 1950 members and 167 online when I click the link from the Help menu – but when I try to “view in telegram” on my device, it tells me the channel is CLOSED. WTF guys?!

I’m NOT a software engineer or coder, but I shouldn’t HAVE to be - THAT is the f’n point. If we expect Bitcoin to be decentralized and hardened against attacks from nation state actors or anything else, we need as many people running full nodes as possible. That means this needs to be a hell of a lot easier than it currently is, and not just run by a niche group of hard-core coders who spend all day on github.