Premiere Elements 9 Opens with Altered Workspace, then Locks Up

Question

After starting to learn Premiere Elements 8 in a classroom setting I decided to buy the software. With Premiere Elements 9 available I purchased that version and installed it on my home PC.
My System: HP Pavilion dv9500 Notebook PC, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU, T7500 @ 2.20GHz; 4.0 GB RAM; 32-bit Operating System, Windows Vista Business, Service Pack 2; DirectX version 11.0; NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS.
The installation (from a DVD) appeared to go normally. I used the program less than one day just checking on what new features the 9 version had over the 8 version. During that time it appeared to be very similar to what I had learned with version 8 in the class that I took. When I retrieved video files (from a DVD) that had been supplied with the “Adobe Premiere Elements 9 Classroom In A Book” and started some of the exercises, the program locked up and gave me the following message: “Sorry, a serious error has occurred that requires Adobe Premiere Elements to shut down. We will attempt to save your current project.”
After closing the program and reopening it the workspace was not normal. The Tasks panel was missing; the Monitor panel and My Project panel were present but were free floating (they could be dragged about the screen with the mouse).
To try to get the regular workspace back I clicked Window > Restore Workspace. When I did that I got the “Sorry, a serious error…” message every time I tried it.
I next uninstalled Premiere Elements 9 using Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall. The only thing that I uninstalled was the 1.9GB Adobe Premiere Elements program. Then I re-installed it. That however, did not correct the problem.
Several threads on the Adobe Forum have suggested that the Event Viewer should be examined to see if it held any clues. I have done that and copied the seven Information Events and one Error Event that seemed to be associated with the timeframe of my opening the program, but not being very technically inclined I am not sure what to look for. It if it would help resolve my problem I can post those Events.
Any help with resolving my problem will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Bill Hunt, thanks for your reply
          For the Workspace, go to Window>Reset Workspace.
I did that and got the "Sorry, serious error..." message as I mentioned in the original post.
         You can certainly type out, or do a screen-cap for the Event Viewer errors. The ones that will the most use to you will be ones with links. Often, those will lead to MS Web messages, such as a "driver" problem.
I have copied below the results of the Event Viewer attempt to find clues to my problem. As far as I could see there there were no links to MS or other solutions. The times that are underlined indicate my operations on the computer. The copied screen shots that follow indicate the Event Viewer results.
8:46 – Opened PrE and with Welcome screen open & let it run until hard drive lights stopped blinking. All of the following Information Events were listed between 8:46:08 and 8:46:19
8:49 – Clicked on New Project, that ran the progress bar for about 30 seconds, then I got message that previous project closed unexpectedly and did I want to recover old project. The following Information Event was listed at 8:49:19'
8:50 – Clicked No to recover old project and got a blank PrE grey screen.
8:51 – Clicked File > New Project (named it New Project-3) and OK, then corrupted workspace opened. The hard drive lights continued to blink until 8:53.
8:53 – With the mouse I moved the Monitor panel to uncover the Menu bar, then clicked on Window > Restore Workspace. At that point I got the “Sorry, a serious error has occurred that requires Adobe Premiere Elements to shut down. We will attempt to save your current project.”
8:55 – Clicked OK on their offer to save project and the “Sorry, serious error” dialog box went away. Now it was no longer a PrE screen, just white with the 2 panels still present. A mouse click on a blank area deleted the 2 panels and the spinning dougnut was still spinning. The following Information Event was listed at 8:56:18
8:57 – Opened Task Manager and the 2 panels reappeared. A Microsoft Windows dialog box opened saying that Adobe PrE 9 was not responding with option to close program which I did. The last two Events (the first an Information Event and the second an Error Event) were listed at 8:57:39 and 8:57:51