CS4 Windows problems: crash very often, stuck when import certain avi files

Question

The followling problems are in CS4 (newer updated) Windows (Windows XP SP3):
I am using Premiere Pro in CS4 and the program crashes so often (it crashes more than 10 times in one afternoon). It usually starts when I place clip, photoshop file, or other assets to sequence. If it starts leave a lot of frames while I pull the asset (there will be the same frame over the path my mouse went), it is a signal to crash soon. After it restarts, it usually loses the last saved information (even I saved the project way before it crashes). I do not know whether other users see the similar behavior.
The second problem does not look like only for CS4. It happens in CS3 too. When I place an AVI file (not sure whether other format behaves the same), the import program will stuck in the end (while it shows "generate peaks from xxx.avi"). It will take forever and I never successfully finish importing the file. I worked around and realized it only happens to the avi files I captured from Movie maker (use Auto capture option). The avi file can be played in Windows Media player. If I use Movie maker to cut the end of the avi file, the new avi file can be imported to Premiere without any problem. It seems the last few frames in the captured avi file has problem so the import subfunction will stuck there. I am not sure whether this is the case. If it is, the program should be "SMART" enough to go on or ignore the bad frames.
Any idea?

Answer 1

Thanks, Harm. This brings to another problem I had. While I am using PR to capture DV from my two mini-DV cameras, sometimes it just generates a lot flicks or "snow" in the avi files. But with Movie Maker, the same tape will not have such problem. This is why I am using Movie maker to capture the movie since it is accessible beside PR. It seems the PR problem is only for the last few frames so I just cut the last few frames off. I do not know why PR cannot just generate an Error message to UI so we will not just wait there for hours. I did some programming to control many instruments and I understand I cannot project every problem the program will encount, but at least I can generate an error message to tell the user where the problem is. Is this the fundmental guideline for programmers? If PR does like the format, let us know when it reads. It is very frustrated while you wait there hours and hours without any idea why it stucks!