Cubase Elements 8 or 9 crashes - totally un-usable

Hi

I have Cubase Elements 6, 8 and 9 installed.
v.6 works works fine (installed 2013)

I had problems for a few months with v 8 crashing. I tried re-installing v.8 but that didn’t solve the issue so I decided to upgrade to v 9 a couple of months ago but that too crashes and so far I have not been able to use it…

The program loads OK but crashes as soon as I import a project or even add a midi track to a blank project (get the “Cubase has stopped working” message)

I have removed all my VST plugins from the VST2 and VST3 folders as I know that they can be an issue. I don’t exactly know what folder Elements 9 is looking for VST3 plugins in but I have none loaded in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. I am confident that no 32-bit plugins are being scanned

I have also tried renaming the preferences folder (C:.…AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Cubase LE AI Elements 9_64)
and forcing Cubase to buld a new preferences file but this hasn’t worked either.

Have also disabled Steinberg Hub

I logged a job with Steinberg “Support” over 2 weeks ago but they haven’t picked it up. Maybe they need more time?

I’ve done all I can to try and research this but If anybody has any suggestions I’d be very grateful

Windows 7 64 bit SP1

Graham H