Illustrator CS5 just won't stay open

Question

I have looked all over the forums and elsewhere to find a solution to this, but so far, I haven't been able to resolve it. I noticed many other people have had this problem, and it was resolved in many ways, but none of those ways worked for me. This is the trial downloaded from adobe.
My info:
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit
4 gb ram
AMD athlon IIX2 Processor
Both Photoshop and Illustrator load and run very fast on my laptop, so performance really isn't an issue.  I've never had this problem with photoshop.
Illustrator cs5 worked fine since last night. After working on a file, I restarted and Illustrator loads and opens, but doesn't stay open. It closes about 3-5 seconds after it opens, so I can only assume it crashed without any error message.
The starting logo never completely loads all of the font list. It usually gets to about 80% and then opens and closes automatically.
So far, i've tried:
uninstalling illustrator and reinstalling it -- did this 3 times
using the cleaning tool to completely remove cs5 and reinstall it
deleting the illustrator profile
temporarily removing the fonts in C:/Windows/Fonts ... some fonts could not be moved due to the fact they were in use/system fonts
updating illustrator CS5 to "fix" the bugs ... it doesn't seem to improve anything
Looking in the event viewer for errors, I found this:
Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 15.0.1.399, time stamp: 0x4c57c1d9
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x6ec08639
Faulting process id: 0xa58
Faulting application start time: 0x01cb73dd36ec5614
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 7b1d928a-dfd0-11df-ab15-705ab6e1e86d
not sure if any of that has to do with why it crashes.
nothing worked. The strange thing is, if I open an .EPS or .AI file with illustrator, illustrator will stay open as long as my mouse is over a context menu. If i'm quick enough, I can open .EPS files in illustrator and then save them as .AI files, but as soon as I close the menu, illustrator quits.
So, this is incredibly fustrating. I have to do a vector project in illustrator and obviously can't ... i've been quite desperate in trying to find other vector programs, but i'd rather not need to learn a new program when I can use one I already have.
Does anyone know how to fix illustrator and keep it open?   how do I temporarily remove all the fonts from illustrator? I am assuming that because it never completely loads the font list at startup, its a font issue. But I haven't installed or modified any new fonts lately.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
Message was edited by: MissaMoonlight
Message was edited by: MissaMoonlight
Message was edited by: MissaMoonlight

Answer 1

I did as you suggested and removed my prefererences and workspaces. It still closes.
Also, I do not use adobe acrobat, it isn't installed on my computer. I have no issues hovering over the menus in AI -- hovering over the menus and opening them is the only thing that keeps AI open. As soon as I take my mouse off the menu, AI closes.
The only way to keep AI open is to interact with the menus. Any dialog box keeps it open. As soon as you close the menu or dialog, AI closes as well.
Does this
Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 15.0.1.399, time stamp: 0x4c57c1d9
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x6ec08639
Faulting process id: 0xa58
Faulting application start time: 0x01cb73dd36ec5614
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 7b1d928a-dfd0-11df-ab15-705ab6e1e86d
or this
Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          10/25/2010 4:55:12 PM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      MissM-MissM-PC
Description:
Faulting application name: Illustrator.exe, version: 15.0.1.399, time stamp: 0x4c57c1d9
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x6d7085eb
Faulting process id: 0x824
Faulting application start time: 0x01cb7486e3b5108e
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Support Files\Contents\Windows\Illustrator.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 28887847-e07a-11df-aee0-705ab6e1e86d
explain anything?