AutoCAD Architecture 2008 crashes during startup - FATAL ERROR

On the command line you might see the command aecprojectbrowserstartup and then you get a crash. It says something like: AutoCAD Error Aborting - FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0000 Exception at cf77528h. The address cf77528h can be different each time.

Knowledge Base document: AutoCAD® Architecture crashes during startup

There is no need to uninstall SP1 as suggested in the KB unless you find other reasons that SP1 is trouble for you.

Use REGEDIT.EXE (be careful though)

Locate the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\MC3

Set MC3OptIn to 0

This is the same as opting-out from Customer Involvement Program (CIP)

Either you can continue to not opt-in for CIP or you can select to not Show Project Browser at Startup.

1. Start AutoCAD Architecture 2008.
2. Click Tools menu > Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, click the AEC Project Default tabs.
4. Select the Show Project Browser at Startup option.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Help menu > Customer Involvement Program.
7. Select Yes.
8. Click OK.

Source: JTB World Blog

this is really handy because i had this problem before and i kept reinstalling AutoCAD
till i found this.