Canno=t import some MP4 files: "your system needs to be configured to import HEVC or HEIF"

Thank you John.  I agree, it appears to be a  video compression standard problem.  It apparently is associated with Apple MOV files and in my case with newer versions video files created with GoPro cameras.  Video that I shot on an old Hero5 uses the older standard H264 and it displays without any problems in Premiere Elements.  However a GoPro Hero7 uses H265 (HEVC) by default and these files will not load into Premiere Elements.  

You mentioned the Handbrake conversion program.  GoPro has an excellent guide with screenshots on how to use Handbrake (https://handbrake.fr/)  to convert from H.265 to the H.264 Codec form:
https://community.gopro.com/s/article/how-to-convert-gopro-hevc-videos-to-h-264-using-handbrake?language=en_US

Still, I am  angery at Adobe for not addressing what is obviuosly a very  serious problem that affects many users and has persisted for about 4 years.  Their video editing software has not kept pace with video industry standards and instead  they require users to convert files before they can be loaded.  Tell me if I'm wrong but this seems to be clearly an Adobe problem.  Is it just with Premier Elements or is it with the Premiere Pro as well?

Thank you  John.  Most of the steps I had tried previously without success.  

In tried the advice about deleting some "driver" files (BadDrivers.txt, CurrentDisplayDriver.txt, LocalBadDriver.txt) from the directory
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Premiere Elements
but this does not work for me. 

There are dozens, perhaps a hundred or more, posts in the Adobe Community related to  this problem. They span over 4 years.  Some solutions  have worked in ad hoc situations (like a storage space problem) but almost all of them remain unesolved. Why doesn't  Adobe address this issue?  Is it just Elements? Or does Premier Pro have similar issues?  You would think a company that makes a video editing application would be concerned when users cannot import videos into the application.