Premiere CS4 crashes/freezes upon File Export Media click

Question

My system:
CS4 master collection. I have some remnants of CS3 on my computer.
4 Gig RAM
Quad Core processor
Vista
My problem:
Problem started yesterday and I've tried a lot of things but can't figure this out. When I click File>Export>Media, premiere greys out most panels and nothing can be clicked. It gives a beep of death on every click. I need to use task manager to close premiere. The only thing I've found I am able to do is click escape, which returns me to my project as if nothing has happened.
I've tried a range of different projects, including a brand new one with nothing in it except a 10 second DV avi file. Same problem across the board.
I've reinstalled CS4 Master collection but didn't uninstall it first. No change. Would it help to uninstall everything and start from scratch?
Never had this problem before.
It also does the same thing on file>export>clipnotes but I CAN export an EDL.
The only change to my PC between this not happening and it happening was I installed the new music streaming software 'Spotify'. I have since uninstalled this but it hasn't fixed it.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd be hugely grateful.
Ed

Answer 1

Hey Ed, I had replied earlier in the other thread you posted in and just noticed you started a new topic here, so, copied from the other thread:
I had something similar happen to me a few times... if the escape key is taking you back to premiere and returning everything to normal, then your computer is not really hanging or crashing. What most likely is happening is that Premiere is opening a dialog box OFF SCREEN, so you just can't see it or click on it to attend to what it's asking. Hitting escape is like hitting cancel, which returns you to your project.
To fix: just mess around with your monitor setups in your display panel, ie.: if you have a dual monitor setup, temporarily disable one monitor - forcing everything to open on one screen. And/Or set your screen resolution to the maximum your video card allows so that you may uncover the off screen space the dialog opens on. OR... you're video card may have a control panel with the option of forcing all windows onto one screen or preventing off screen display. Basically do whatever it takes to get a view of off your screen.
Once you discover that missing window, make sure you move it onto your primary display, somewhere in the center, and the next time you try to encode it should be right where it should be.
Good luck.