PS Elements 6 & 8 Slow Down Computer When Not In Use

Question

I currently use PS Elements 8 on a MacBook Pro using 10.6.2 version of the operating system.
When I haven't been using Elements for perhaps 24 hours, I suddenly will notice that Elements is using an amazing amount of CPU cycles - say from 60% to 80%.  I use MenuMeters, which shows me that something suddenly is using a lot of CPU cycles.  I then switch to the Activity Monitor to see which application is doing this.  It always is Elements.
I've waited to see if the problem will go away, but it usually doesn't.  The only solution I've come up with is to Quit the application, and relaunch it.
What puzzles me is that I will not have been using Elements for a long time - say 24+ hours.  Then, suddenly, the problem occurs.  Because this bogs down the computer - and instantly shows up on MenuMeters.  So this isn't happening in the background, and I don't notice it.  It happens out of the blue.  Because this activity bogs down the computer, I notice it almost instantly.
It's puzzling because applications usually don't wake themselves up and start working vigorously - especially when there are no pictures open.
This happened when I had Elements 6, and continues with Elements 8.  I've been using Elements since I bought version 3 in December 2004.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this?

Answer 1

I've just launched PS Elements more than ten times while holding down on these keys.  Elements launches, but absolutely nothing else happens. 
At first, I thought that perhaps this keystroke combination might only work on a Windows computer.  But with your information in hand, I went into the Elements help file, and found that this is indeed the keystroke combination to use on a Mac.  However, this keystroke combination definitely does nothing on my computer.
If you tell me what this preference file is called, or where it is stored on a Mac, I'll delete it manually.