Could I have gotten a bad install disc for 8.5 Producer?

Awhile back I upgraded Sonar home Studio 6 to Sonar 8.5 Studio. then very soon I upgraded Studio to Producer. So I hardly used Studio, and got right into Producer. From the start, I had problems, mostly with crashes. One weird one was that I couldn't used EWSO basses, because if I stopped the music while they were playing, Sonar would crash. I worked with Cakewalk and East West support, but nobody could figure it out. Also, if I deleted a synth from Synth Rack, that would also crash it. I struggled on for years with it, because it was my only DAW. It never occurred to me to go back to Studio. Instead, I went to Reaper. Then this whole closure thing happened, and I thought, I'd better see if I can get 8.5 running decently, as it's going to be my latest version going forward. I reinstalled, but all the same problems were there. Then I remembered I had the Studio disc. I thought, what the heck, maybe it will work better than Producer. To my amazement, it does. In fact, it works perfectly, way better than Producer ever did. No more EW basses crashing my project. I can delete synths easily. also, saving was a risky proposition, but with Studio no problem, it's quick and painless. And, best of all, I can do everything I did with Producer. 
 
All this leads me to wonder, did I get a bad install disc? If so, it could have been fixed easily by sending me a new one. I never thought to ask, and support apparently never thought of it either. Too bad, it has cost me years of frustration, as well as learning a new DAW that works for me but requires twice the effort. If only I hadn't upgraded! sometimes we need to leave well enough alone, and ignore the constant drumbeat of upgrading for the sake of upgrading.. deals too good to resist. The ironic thing is, it took this tragedy of Sonar dying to bring me back to 8.5 Studio. I now have the perfect DAW for me, at last. And I plan to keep using it until they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Yeah, I did get the two patches for 8.5 Producer, still had the same problems. I'm leaning toward it being a bad install disc (disc one, that is. the other 3 for producer were fine). Especially if others say 8.5.3 was the most stable sonar ever. It sure wasn't for me (except for 8.5 Studio).

also, some also say 8.5.3 was buggy, so...