Photoshop CS4 Extended Crashes When Opening Files

Question

Whenever I open a file or create a new file (file type doesn't seem to make a difference), Photoshop stops responding for a few seconds, then my monitor goes to standby mode. Turning the monitor off then on again doesn't help. The computer continues to run, but the only way to regain control is a hard reboot. Everything worked just fine until yesterday, when it first started doing this.
EDIT: I use a dual-monitor setup, but recently my secondary monitor's backlight burned out, so I unchecked the "extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" checkbox in windows display settings. This is when Photoshop started crashing. When I thought about that, I went back and rechecked the box and now everything works fine.
Adobe Photoshop Version: 11.0.1 (11.0.1x20090218 [20090218.r.523 2009/02/18:02:00:00 cutoff; r branch])
Operating System: Windows XP 32-bit
Version: 5.1 Service Pack 3
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:15, Model:4, Stepping:7 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2
Physical processor count: 2
Processor speed: 2793 MHz
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series
Video Mode: ati2dvag.dll
Video Card Driver: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.10.6869
Built-in memory: 2046 MB
Free memory: 1167 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 1676 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 58 %
Image cache levels: 4
Photoshop scratch has async I/O enabled
Scratch volume(s):
  F:\, 298.1G, 201.4G free
  C:\, 232.8G, 86.6G fre

Answer 1

EDIT: I use a dual-monitor setup, but recently my secondary monitor's backlight burned out, so I unchecked the "extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" checkbox in windows display settings. This is when Photoshop started crashing. When I thought about that, I went back and rechecked the box and now everything works fine.
Still, it's a workaround at best. This should not happen. I'd definitely investigate the graphics card driver settings and PS' OpenGL prefs. There must be a way to get both working without the crashes...
Mylenium