PS CS4/WIN7 Application Freeze & Inoperative Components... A Cure (?)

Question

This posting is the end result of about 24 total hours sitting at the computer, talking with Support, and doing just about everything to the computer short of a complete WIN7 Clean Re-Install.
The Problem: Even though it had worked perfectly since purchase in late 2008 (even after my WIN7 Upgrade in November 2009) all of a sudden, last week, PS CS4 began to be very unstable...
- PS (Ver 11.0.1) (Bridge Ver. 5.6)  would open normally ( on its own, or from "Edit In/Photoshop from LightRoom 2.6)
- At first I could Open any photo(JPEG, TIFF, RAW (from Bridge or LR) from my files normally... as many as I wanted
- HOWEVER if/when I attempted to manipulate / modify any of the photos with (for the most part) the Rectangular Marquee Tool (Cut and Paste into "New"), Patch, Crop, Magic Wand, etc.  the tools would not work. Also part of my menu's would "dim". Further:
-  When I then would try to "Open" another picture, from anywhere, nothing would happen, would not open... I could Close them out but could not Open anything else from anywhere.
- From that point on it was impossible to Open any file in PS.... and the majority of the tools were inoperative.
- The only thing that would help was a computer re-boot (not just a PS re-start)... and then it would only work until I tried to modify a photo... then it would "freeze" again. If I just closed and re-started PS the same problem would be evident.-
- I have other programs (DPP and DxOptic Pro) and they worked perfectly... In fact, the computer was normal in absolutely all respects except for PS
Note: I had not made any modifications to the computer or added any software or updates just prior to the failure(s)
Last week I attempted to get through to Adobe Support (another story)... Three calls on Thursday (total of 5 hours on "Hold" waiting to be connected... Two hours on "hold" on Friday... Never connected. I finally called the Seattle Adobe Offices and the receptionist e-mailed support and had them call me (3 hours later).
Prior to calling Adobe I had accomplished every internal check known to man... All WIN7 Diagnostics, Memory Check, HD Check, Start-Up and Services check. The computer was operating normally.... not an error to be found... all other applications were normal.
On contact the emphasis of the Tech's attention was totally on the computer rather than on PS itself... We went through a series of about 12 steps checking computer operation, many of the operations I had already done... but we did them again.  (I later found the exact "check list" she was using in Adobe "Troubleshoot System Errors/Freezes in PS/Win7". No Help... Finally, out of time (and a bit out of patience) The process was completed... No answers.
The next day I went through the entire check list on my own... again, it dealt only with the computer not PS. I finally did a  complete Deactivation and re-install of PS CS4 from the Adobe site and my Account... No change... files could be opened until I attempted operations... then nothing.
On Tuesday I received a call from the same Support Tach (in New Delhi) that I had dealt with before. (No doubt the three page Fax I had sent to the Main Offices in California may have had something to do with it)... This time we dealt with PS itself.
After several PS memory, scratch disc, HD space checks we got to the "Plug-Ins" folder. As I operate the 64 Bit version of PS the Tech had me remove the Plug-Ins folder from the PS folder and place it on my desk top... restart PS and bingo! the program appeared to operate normally. Faster to load and no more processing/opening problems!
Note: Prior to the re-install of PS I did have some third-party plug-ins installed. I had already deactivated them and removed them from the computer and cleaned the Registry. On re-install the only Plug-Ins were those that came with the PS CS4 Download in the "Recommended" format..
We agreed that I would continue to put PS through any/all operations I could think of to test its stability. Then I would start adding the Plug-ins (again, no Plug-Ins were present other than those supplied by Adobe) one by one to see which one caused the error.
I spent the better part of last night "forcing" as many operations and files into PS that I could. The program operated flawlessly... Then I would shut down PS... add a Plug-In into a newly created "Plug-In" folder in the PS file (64 Bit)... re-start PS and test... Then close down, add another Plug-In, open and test.... etc, etc, etc. The strangest thing is that I eventually had all of the removed Plug-ins replaced in the new folder and PS continued/continues to work absolutely normally!!! Go Figure.  Not being a "guru" I can't, for the life of me, figure out why the creation of a new Plug-In folder with the same items in it would make a difference... but it did.
I hope that, if someone has had the same problem, that this report will help... Towards the end of trying to fix the problem I was about 30 minutes away from doing an un-needed "Clean" re-install of WIN7... If I hadn't gotten the return call I would have... as it turns out, for no reason.
Overall I love both PS and LightRoom, have used them for years,  and am looking forward to the new releases. I am a semi-professional photographer and have a small home business... that is now woefully behind in some "jobs" as a result of the "problem". At the same time I have to say that I have now experienced, first hand, what I have read about on the "Net"... Two days and many hours of trying to even get through to Support aside, The Techs appear to  "default" to the "it's a computer problem" stance. To be sure, their programs are complex and you have to start somewhere but if I had to suggest one thing to Adobe it would be to "Listen to the user... what the problem is and what has been done so far to attempt a solution"... and to allow the Tech's some latitude to approach the event from other than "rote" check-lists.

Answer 1

"Or you may have a bad sector on your hard drive that the plug in folder happened to be sitting on"...
I am now 99.99999% positive that the Plugi-Ins folder was the problem... One of the very first things I did was a complete DiskCheck on all my drives... The whole nine yards...even though everything else was operating normally.
I talked with a friend that just got home and he also said that something was in the "old" Plug-In folder that was either fixed or eliminated with the creation of the new folder. Learn something every day, I thought that it would have been fixed with a complete re-install pf PS.
I have "worked" PS to death trying to get it to fail... It remains perfect... My faith in mankind has been restored!
I guess if I had a suggestion for Adobe it would be to at least think about the possibility of a problem being due in, or a part of, the program itself rather than assuming that it is the computer. In this case it would have saved about 20 hours sitting at the screen checking WIN7 and getting frustrated. When the Tech finally decided to investigate PS itself the problem took about 20 minutes to find.
Thanks for the input