Premiere Elements 2023 Uploading Videos to Timeline glitchy and wrong once in the program

This ones a bit hard to explain, but has me ready to find a new video editing software out of frustration.  I had many successful projects, and then the following started to happen.  

I noticed that this only occurs when there's audio tied to the video (ie no issues for my drone footage).  I've found some forums that lead me to Audio Hardware settings where I adjust the input & output and it magically solves it.  This has worked in small doses, and needs repeated time after time as new clips are added to the project.

When I start a new project, I'll 'add media' maybe 10 clips, only a few minutes long in total.  I'll put the assets in the timeline... normally you'd be able to watch them in queue as the raw footage as they are on the hard drive, then you make your edits.  

This is where the problem begins... The videos, even after rendered, have all sorts of issues.  Sometimes just a blurry screen, or inverted, reversed still images, doubled up side by side, as if a filter was applied, then parts of the video clean as they should be, then a few more seconds with a completely different issue.  The audio is usually accurate and true to what was uploaded.  The problems seem to be toards the front part of a clip, but could happen throughout the entire clip, and sometime even have visuals that originated from a different clip on the timeline.  If it's a minute long clip, at least 10sec will have issues.

I considered uninstalling and reinstalling, but I read then I'll have to re purchase it.  

I'm working on a Lenovo PC with 12th gen Intel processor i7 12700H 12300MHZ 14 core with 32g RAM and plenty of open space on 1tb hard drive.  Realtek HiDefinition Audio SST

Anybody else have anything similar happen?  Thanks.