More possibilities and suggestions until a professional comes along with suggestions
Re the laptop that won't show you the menu bar, can you right-click flowchart cells to open the context menu with the draw line option on?
[HR][/HR]Re the .NET Framework, this is a previous problem from another member that was caused by a corrupted installation of .NET Framework 1.1:
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?19133-Logicator-V5-startup-error&p=178983&viewfull=1#post178983
I also managed to get PIC-Logicator to crash... by randomly clicking everywhere for a while, opening the 'Flowsheet Map View', clicking it, then clicking the flowsheet again. I couldn't reproduce that error again. However, any .NET application crash allows the user (me) to see what version of the .NET Framework the executable has loaded.
As you can see from the attachment, mscorlib (.NET Framework) 2.0 is in use. I also have versions up to 4.0 installed so I can't imagine that it is 'just using the latest version'. Make sure you do have version 2.0 (and 1.1) installed (if you're interested in software development for computers, consider downloading Visual Basic/C# 2010, the installer for which will automatically sort out .NET versions 2.0 to 4.0).
However, I would have expected that without the correct framework installed, an error message would have shown saying that an assembly couldn't be loaded with description like "mscorlib.dll Version=3.5.0.0" or a simple error like "You must install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework to run this application..."
[HR][/HR]Which installer did you use? The "
uncompressed msi" or the
normal executable? If one doesn't work, try the other. And also try the
vcredist_x86.exe update.
[HR][/HR]Re both computers that you own - Logicator should run on any modern computer - sometimes referred to as an 'IBM-compatible PC' or similar. As a result, Logicator runs fine on both my decent computer with a Core 2 Duo processor and a 2004 Celeron laptop bought at a car boot sale for £5. According to PassMark, my processor is better than yours (the compaq PC) so your computer won't be too fast (mine qualifies as 'out of date' anyway). Logicator won't require special AHCI drivers either for a modern computer since Windows deals with that.
Make sure that the copies of Windows 7 you have installed are not broken or corrupted - can you open any control panel item you want and it works? Also, try unplugging and reconnecting all disk drives and reseating the RAM in the computers.
[HR][/HR]There's also some alternative free flowcharting software available for PICAXE too - the (discontinued) one built into
Programming Editor, and third party programs
Yenka PICs and
Scratch.
[HR][/HR]Finally, the problem's likely to be specific to some software that you have (or have not) installed on your computers. I'm going to stop at this point as to avoid the potential of clogging the forum with tons of useless information if the solution is simpler.