CS2 crashes when trying to load image AFTER CS4 trial

Question

I just recently used the CS4 Extended trial (which worked fine).  It's 30 days ended and I sadly went back to my purchased copy of CS2 (actually own the whole Prodcution Studio Premium).
Now when I try it, Photoshop CS2 loads fine, but then hangs whenever I try to load ANY image.  It even displays the thumbnails correctly.  Just freezes and then gives the "Not responding" error after a few more seconds when I actually try to click on any picture.
I uninstalled CS4 -still happened.  I uninstalled CS2 and reloaded the whole suite.  Same thing.  I then uninstalled it again and then manually deleted all the files I could physically find, reinstalled it.  Same thing.
I am going mad!!
I am running the whole thing on Vista 64 Home Premium with 8 gigs.  (And everything worked FINE before the trial, and yes, I tried with and without all the latest CS2 patches AND tried running it in Windows XP SP2 compatability mode already -although it worked fine before without it.)
Any thoughts from anyone?
Randy

Answer 1

I have hundred of dollars worth of software sitting useless on 5 DVD's next to me because "CS2 is no longer supported".
It never was on Vista!
I sympathise with your situation however, and you do seem to have tried everything that might help.
Your conclusion that uninstalling the CS4 trial took CS2 with it is wrong unless you ignored warnings about shared files.
Your concept of activation is wrong too. Activation counters can be reset by Adobe if they get an explanation.
There may be a way out of this but you might find it less hassle in the long run to reformat and start from scratch.
On the other hand, since you are are only just in the upgrade window, you might consider upgrading to a version designed for Vista