I'm having a similar problem: When i start Maya (PLE 7.0.1), the splash screen shows up and loads the program, then it crashes to desktop popping up the standard windows error for when a program crashes.. (The error report thing). I'm running Windows XP pro Norwegian on an amd 1,3 GHz cpu / 1GB ddr ram / radeon 9600 pro.

Any suggestions for a solution?

Edit: It starts in 256 colors but persp view is all black. How can i fix the problem so i don't have to run it in 256 colors?