Patroler:
Here is a support ticket request I sent recently and the answer I got back:
"About every other time I go to open my V8a I get this error messege and then I have to close it. Upon reopening it usually works as normal......"
followed by the long error report which makes no sense to me.

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Sony response:

Please follow these instructions exactly, making sure to pay close attention when working in the registry and when ending processes. Performing these steps will result in all presets and transitions you may have saved being wiped clean, so you will want to back these up beforehand using our Preset Manager program. This is available free of charge from our website at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=469

First, if you have any external USB or Firewire devices like hard-drives or dongles, please safely disconnect those.

Next, please go to Start>Control Panel, and open the Add/Remove Programs control panel. (For Windows Vista, Click Start button, and then type Programs and Features in the Start Search box. In the Programs list, click Programs and Features.)

Remove anything with a name containing Sony ACID, Sony Sound Forge, Sony Vegas, Sony DVD Architect, Sony CD Architect or Sony Media Manager, as well as any other Sony Media Software or Sony Creative Software programs.

Also, remove the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine and any Microsoft .NET Framework versions along with the Microsoft C++ 2005 Redistributable software if it is listed.

Close this control panel, and go to My Computer. Open the C:\ drive and open the Program Files folder. In this folder, if you see the Sony Setup folder, please delete the entire folder along with any of its contents.

Next, if you have a Sony folder remaining in Program Files, please open this as well. If there are any folders corresponding to a Sony Creative Software or Sony Media Software program, such as ACID, Vegas, DVD Architect, Media Manager, Shared Plug-Ins, or any of our software you may have installed, please remove these folders. If these are the only folders in C:\Program Files\Sony, please remove the enitre Sony Folder.

Next, please close these folders and press CTRL + ALT + DEL to open the Task Manager window. In the Task Manager window, please switch to the Processes tab. On this tab, click and end any process not listed below, by choosing 'End Process'. Please note, you must end ALL processes not listed below, or the reinstallation may fail due to conflicting programs running on your computer. If any processes give you errors when ending or will not allow you to end them, please update this incident for further instructions on this step.

End every process except for: (These processes are to be ended for Windows XP Only - for a list of processes for Windows 2000 please update this incident)
alg.exe
csrss.exe
explorer.exe
lsass.exe
services.exe
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe (there may be many of these, you can leave them all running)
System Idle Process
System
taskmgr.exe
winlogon.exe
wmiprvse.exe

If you have other users logged-in with running processes, please be sure to end these as well.

Once the processes have been ended, please close the Task Manager window. Choose Start>Run. Type in 'regedit' and click OK.

** Before making changes to your registry, we advise that you save a backup. If you are unfamiliar with this operation you may want to contact your IT personal, or take a look at this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756 - How to back up and restore the registry in Windows XP and Windows Vista

In the Registry Editor window, please find the category HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and open the Software subcategory. If a folder named Sony Creative Software and Sony Media Software is shown there, please click this folder and press Delete. Once again, go to the top level categories and open HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and the Software subcategory there as well. Again, if Sony Creative Software or Sony Media Software is shown, please delete them. When you have finished, you can close the Registry Editor.

Next, please download the latest update for your software if you have not done so already. You can find the latest update for any of the Sony Creative Software and Sony Media Software programs at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/updates When this has finished downloading, please install the software directly from these downloaded updates, and not from any previous updates or discs you may have.

When finished with all reinstallation, please restart your computer. When your computer has restarted, your software will have a complete clean installation. If your software does not work correctly at this point, it is possible that this problem is related to your system and it may be beyond our ability to assist. In this situation, we would recommend contacting the computer manufacturer or distributor for further support.
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I have downloaded all my Sony softwares in advance to another drive so they are ready to install once I get an evening available to do the un-installing procedures they itemize above.
So, I haven't done this yet, but this is the answer from support and might be worth a try for your situation. I had to wait weeks for this response so it might save you some time to just go ahead and do this kind of "extremely" clean remove and re-install of Vegas and any other SCS you might have.

Good luck,

Eileen

p.s. this is on my XP SP2 Quad machine....