Adobe Reader 8.1 has encountered a problem and needs to close. Help

I saw I could upgrade my Adobe reader to Acrobat 8. So I did. Well it wouldn’t open I always got an error and it would shut down so I uninstalled it and it took away Adobe bridge and my CS help files too. Which is a whole other barrel of suck. Anyway, I uninstalled it and then I followed all your directions on:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/329444.php

And then I re-downloaded it and reinstalled it, and same error.

I get this:

Adobe Reader 8.1 has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Error signature:

AppName: acrord32.exe AppVer: 8.1.0.137 ModName: msvcr70.dll
ModVer: 7.0.9466.0 Offset: 000013d6

I even at one point tried to download the trial of Acrobat professional, I needed to try it for school, and again I got a shutdown error. I also recently bought a camera and the software had the reader on it, so I tried to install it from the disc same freakin problem.

Am I just doomed to never have Acrobat professional or the reader again?

I can't seem to get any answers to my questions from Adobe, and I have done numerous searches,

Please advise,

Thanks, Lea