That is VERY unusual. I just imported the project into 2.3 and it worked great. And you are the first to report an issue like this. Try cleaning and re-building. If that doesn't work, I'd be interested in seeing your project file.
Looks like it was a problem on my end. My anti-virus was interrupting some GMS functionality. I've spoken with yoyogames and have resolved the issues. So now, this file runs GREAT! thanks again.
