MMC Stops Working when Reliability Monitor or View Services is launched

Note: First raised 2 days ago - copied from old forum.  Thanks again to RobinBredin for his reply on the old forum.

Hi  I am running Vista Home Premium on an Inspiron 640M.  In most respects the system is functioning well.  Windows Update reports that the system is up to date.  I have run sfc /scannow, it reported that some files had been repaired and completed successfully.

 Recently I have noticed some peculiarities.  If I try to launch either Reliability Monitor or the Service viewer from the Control Panel/Computer/Manage window, Microsoft Management Console crashes.

 I can launch both in Safe mode, though the Reliability monitor reports no data available.

 Event monitor works OK until the details tab for an event is clicked, whereupon MMC crashes as above. It does not crash in Safe mode.

 Any help would be welcome!