Combase.dll error

I am hoping someone here has an answer, as Microsoft tells me this is not their problem yet the application tech support says it absolutely is a Microsoft issue. I have an application named "Perrla" that is used to write academic papers is a certain format. Earlier this week I had to reinstall Windows 10 to correct an error in another application, and the Perrla application had to be reinstalled. After I reinstalled Perrla, it would no longer run. I get as far as the application boot screen and the app crashes. Several calls to Perrla support narrowed the issue down to an (infrequent) error with combase.dll. and their tech support told me Microsoft would have to provide the fix; they had this issue with other users who had to contact support for Microsoft and eventually had their issue resolved.

After three calls to Microsoft tech support I was finally told the issue is that I am using Word 2019 and Perrla does not support that version. The MS tech sent me back to Perrla, whose tech said it was BS; Perrla fully supports Word 2019. Regardless of which tech is correct, I documented a combase.dll error when Perrla starts, but the MS support people didn't investigate it. The log file follows, and I am hoping someone can tell me how to fix this so I can get my application working again.

Thanks in advance.

Faulting application name: PERRLA.exe, version: 7.7.5.1, time stamp: 0x4bd89424

Faulting module name: combase.dll, version: 10.0.17763.404, time stamp: 0x58b628b6

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0012870f

Faulting process id: 0x7090

Faulting application start time: 0x01d50541397d0034

Faulting application path: C:\PERRLA\PERRLA.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll

Report Id: b71a34d1-fe24-4c18-b447-1ff9d67e1c89

Faulting package full name: 

Faulting package-relative application ID: 

In XML:

<Event xmlns="**http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event**">

- <System>

<Provider Name="Application Error" />

<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>

<Level>2</Level>

<Task>100</Task>

<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2019-05-08T01:56:20.659770800Z" />

<EventRecordID>1010</EventRecordID>

<Channel>Application</Channel>

<Computer>ASUS-Laptop</Computer>

<Security />

</System>

- <EventData>

<Data>PERRLA.exe</Data>

<Data>7.7.5.1</Data>

<Data>4bd89424</Data>

<Data>combase.dll</Data>

<Data>10.0.17763.404</Data>

<Data>58b628b6</Data>

<Data>c0000005</Data>

<Data>0012870f</Data>

<Data>7090</Data>

<Data>01d50541397d0034</Data>

<Data>C:\PERRLA\PERRLA.exe</Data>

<Data>C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll</Data>

<Data>b71a34d1-fe24-4c18-b447-1ff9d67e1c89</Data>

<Data />

<Data />

</EventData>

</Event>