Help - Slide layer panel doesn't show my layers..cannot fix

I hope someone out there can help.

See attached screen shot. This is how my slide layers panel looks all the time. It is missing (or hiding) the scrolling slide layers part and it cannot be UNhidden or resized. Doesn't show my layers, only the icon bar. (just a very squashed scroll bar above the icons for copy, paste, duplicate layers, etc)

I have done the following to zero in on the prob (including spkg w Artic tech support), with no luck:

1. Checked that I have most up to date version of Storyline 2..check!

2. Tried to resize it, redock it. 

3. Restarted SL

4. rebooted laptop

5. Opened other SL files to see if it was a single corruption on one file. The panel looks this way regardless of which file I open in SL.

6. Checked my display dpi in windows. It is set correctly.

7. Open one of my files on another computer with Storyline. Slide panel looked normal! So it seems this is related to the software on the orig computer.

8. After all else failed I completely uninstalled SL2, then reinstalled it (per the Artic tech support person's recommendation after nothing else worked).

(Win 7 laptop.)

The slide panel STILL doesn't show correctly. The reinstall didn't fix anything.

I really hope this doesn't mean I have to go into my registry to clean out some leftover corrupt artifacts from the prev install to fix this. Am hoping someone else has encountered this and can share what I hope is a far less messy fix.

In searching the net for slide panel issues/fixes, the only slide panel solutions I have found so far only address a disappearing panel. My slide layer panel is still visible, just not the scrolling layers part. I can't see my layers no matter what I do.