I tried the fix that you recommend here, and didn't notice any real improvement.
When I first load up the form, it starts up the worker thread immediately. I notice something really interesting here, there are 8 gauges on the screen, 2 large ones in the center, 2 medium sized ones to the left and right of those, and then 4 smaller ones below those on either side. When I start up the form, only the four smaller gauges and the medium one on the right are painted. The other three gauges don't paint unless I actively drag the window around the screen.
The thing that's odd about this is that I have a pretty good system - 2ghz core 2 duo, 2 gigs of ram - and other controls paint fine. I can add more and more controls to the screen, but it's always those three that don't seem to paint properly. If I disable a few of the working gauges, then the "broken" ones will paint.
Any idea what is going on here?