C# Very Odd Behavior - "failed to load resources from resource file"

I have 3 C# applications that run as a group. If I run each of these
applications individually, they all start fine. If I have a batch file
that starts each of them quickly, on *most* machines all three run
fine.

BUT! On some older/slower machines (really not all that old or slow
and that are configured identically to the newer/faster machines), when
I start all 3 with the batch file, one of them will not start and a
popup containing:

"failed to load resources from resource file"

is displayed. If I start them individually, they all work just fine.

>From searching on here and the web in general, it seems like that
message is most often associated with loading resources for a specific
culture. The program in question is not set up to use multiple
cultures, and uses only resources that C#/.NET/VS embed into the DLL.

This seems like some sort of race condition and I have been unable to
coax any more informative error messages from the system.

Any help greatly appreciated!