Here’s the basic recipe for troubleshooting a startup crash:

• Run runonce.bat
• Reset your preferences
• Test the display driver
• Test whether xsibatch can run
• Investigate with Process Monitor

See also:

• Diagnosing startup crashes: testing xsibatch
• Troubleshooting 101: runonce.bat
• Process Monitor 101
• The case of McAfee antivirus, VBScript, and the Softimage startup crash
• The case of the Softimage startup freeze and the Wacom driver
• The case of the missing scripting engines
• The case of the missing VBScript