PS CS4 menu bar sometimes disappears (parts of it)

Question

Now and then, part of my menu bar disappears - the section just to the right of "help" - I think the first icon for this particular bar is to open Bridge. I've included a screen shot of my issue - notice that area seems to show my desktop (or whatever is open behind PS). I think this has something to do with my graphics card. I have a nVidia GEForce 9500 GT (driver version 6.14.11.9107 from 9/27/09). The driver is current. When this issue comes up, I have to literally reboot for that secion of the menu bar to reappear. Simply logging off and back on doesn't do it. When this menu bar section "does" appear, when I mouse over the icons, the "roll over" icon is blank - or just solid grey. I don't think that is how it's supposed to look.
I've also had trouble (recently and in the near past) with my "show grid" setting (reference: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/493932?tstart=0). For example, I would create a document 72px x 72px @ 72ppi - make my grid visible (grid settings are set to show 1 grid line every 1px & 1 subdivision). When zooming into any corner of the image, I could see the grid lines were offset (example images on my reference post) - this is not to be confused with the pixel grid. I'm wondering if these issues are related to each other and/or because of my graphics card. The grid line offset issue was previously fixed by deleting my preferences, but sine this is happening again, my guess is something is causing the "grid" to show improperly. I've tested with and without GPU enhancements enabled in PS preferences. I just can't find a common thread in which causes these issues.
If I still have your attention, I would like to add an "off topic" issue (maybe somoene reading this can help on the other issue too). In reference to http://forums.adobe.com/thread/508982?tstart=0, no one has really been able to answer this or confirm/deny they get the same results. This has to do with viewing document size, and the unit of measurement seems to get stuck on cm (I want it to remain on inches like it always did with CS3) - maybe I should go back to CS3. Whenever I have rulers set to pixels, the document size locks to cm. The only way I can see inches in document size is if my rulers are set to inches. To me, it makes sense to have rulers set to pixels (for many reasons), but when it comes time to print, change canvas size, etc., I want to see the document size in inches. I don't know if this is normal, but when I go to create a new document, in the preset drop down list for "default photoshop size", it's unit is cm. Could that have something to do with my cm issue? I'm already made sure my regional settings are US, and unit settings are set according to attached image (unitSettings.jpg).
At this point, I'm going mad because these little bity querks just drive me up the wall to the point I can't get anything done because I'm always troublshooting.If anyone can shed some light on any/all of these topics, you would save me from slicing a wrist or two Thanks...

Answer 1

Are you having rendering issues with other software or just with Adobe PS CS4?
At the moment, I'm not really using any other programs which would call for any rendering. Videos seem to play fine, so other than PS, I'm not using any other programs.
Did you update CS4 to 11.0.1?
I just did, so I guess I have to play the waiting game now. The roll over issue I mentioned before is still giving me just a gray square roll over state. I don't know what (if anything) is supposed to show on roll over. What do you see when you roll over any of those buttons?
Also you might want to update Directx. I know it has nothing to do with
opengl but some posters in the past have reported that some things got
better.
I currently have version
When I tried to update at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b -bc6a-9b6652cd92a3, and install, I would get this error Even though I meet the requirements for this update, something is not letting me. I even made sure my Cryptographic Services was enabled and started. When opening PS, there were times I would get an error something to the effect that PS had a problem with the display driver so something or another was disabled (which I'm thinking it was just not allowing open GL drawing (which was usually around the time I would notice that menu bar section I posted about previously).
Also sometimes newer video card drivers are not the best drivers for a
given application. Have you went back to a set of older drivers to see
if that may cure the problem?
I've rolled back my graphics driver. Will have to wait and see if that solved anything.
As for
the ruler problem some people, from what I have read, have the same or
simular issue. There is a recent thread about 2 or 3 days ago that had
a ruler problem and I don't think it was fixed.
The recent thread was probably mine. I didn't mean to double post about that topic, but sometimes when just one person responds (and usually doesn't have anything helpful to say), others will just pass up that post. This issue is maddening, so maybe one day it will fix itself or I will move on.
Thanks for your time, I will post back if anything else goes wrong - I mean "when" something else goes wrong.