InDesign CS4 still always crashes

Question

I posted this the other day but now it's saying that my question was answered, which it wasn't. I still really need help/advice/input/info ASAP.
I have never been able to  successfully run InDesign CS4 on my 15" MacBook Pro I bought in 2007.  (OS X 10.4.11) I haven't had problems with any of the other  software/programs in the suite. The program appears to install fine, but  as soon as I try to open the program or an .indd file, the most  InDesign has ever done is allow me to open a new file or show the file I  tried to open before the program stops responding and I have to force  quit.
I've  had CS4 for about a year now, and I got new installation discs about 6  months ago because one of my original ones got scratched. I've had  several long conversations with Adobe customer service, none of which  have made any difference. I've run Clean Script twice, deleting the  AdobeFnt11.lst file, and I've tried downloading a trial version at least  3 times.
I'm a commuting graphic design  student and I've been putting up with needing to go to the campus labs  to do any InDesign work for so long because I haven't absolutely needed  to use it very frequently until now. It's crucial for me to make  InDesign work on my MacBook Pro ASAP.  I can't  afford paying hundreds of dollars for a disgnostic/repair if I  could at all avoid it, let alone the significant amount of time I'd  have to go without my computer to do that, so I'd really love to have  more options  to explore. Help! Ideas, anyone? Pretty  please?

Answer 1

Thank you both for the advice, but so far, no dice.
I had tried making a new user account a while back to no avail, but decided to be safe I'd delete that old user and made a new one, but the new user account had the same problems with InDesign.
Then I tried everything you suggested in order:
"Rule out all the other stuff running on the system. (shut it down with Activity Monitor)"
Which processes should I quit? "All, My, Administrator, Other User, Active, Inactive or Windowed" processes are my options. I quit all Active processes that I could (processes "pmTool" "kernel_task" and "WindowServer" would show up again right after I tried to quit them) except Activity Monitor.
"Repair permissions (Disc Utility)"
After quitting the processes, I repaired permissions on my hard  drive.
"And trash the CS preferences."
Here's where I feel the least certain of what exactly needs to be done. Do I need to put all preferences involving all CS4 programs in the  trash  and empty it? I didn't want to jeopardize my other programs, so I put just the preferences that had to do with InDesign -- as well as saved/recovery data, defaults, and the AdobeFnt11.lst file from InDesign -- in the trash. Just to be safe, I made a new folder, copied those files into it and then put the folder on a flash drive. After moving (not copying) the folder onto the drive and ejecting the drive, I emptied the trash and tried to launch InDesign. Same problem--it starts up and lets me open a file (new or previously saved) but as soon as the file shows on screen the program stops responding and I have to force quit it.
If I need to get rid of more preferences, which ones should I try deleting and exactly where would I find those files (so I know for sure I'm deleting all the right ones from all the right places)? Other ideas?
This has been such a frustrating, time-consuming headache/nightmare. If Adobe paid me a living wage for all the time and money I've spent trying to get any use out of their program (that should never have been a problem in the first place) as well as for all the time and money I've had to spend simply because I haven't been able to use InDesign on my only computer, I'd be fully reimbursed for my CS4 purchase by now -- or at least I'd be getting pretty darn close. Not an exaggeration.