I went onto adobe's site, tried to install the ACR 5.5 updater, that didn't work as I didn't have the apps that it was for. I mention it cos I'm not sure it didn't do something else. Then I think I tried to install ACR4.6, downloaded the file, moved the old version of ACR out of the windows folder as per the instructions and replaced it with ACR4.6. That didn't work. Then I downloaded ACR5.5 and did the same thing, just installed as per the instructions on the Adobe site. I think at that point it didn't work.
Sometime later possibly after a shutdown, having given up on opening 7D RAW with AE, I tried to import one by accident (clicked on the wrong file). Suddenly it was working and has worked ever since. Previously I got the same error you have. Sounds like you tried to install the ACR5.5 updater as well, there's another ACR5.5 if you search for it.
Now the mystery to me is why DPP tags my hot pixel with an "x" marker but doesn't remove it, whereas AE does map it out. This "x" gets burned into jpegs in-camera, so the camera knows it's there, DPP knows it's there, and AE knows it's there but only AE will remove it. I don't want to have to shoot RAW all the time so I am sending my camera for repair. Sensor cleaning trick didn't work for me.
