hmm. That is odd. Here's a few things to try:
1. create a brand new scene with nothing in it, and see if you can access the render settings. If you can, then there's something up with your file. If not, then it's something with maya.
2. if it's still crashing and therefore something up with maya, try accessing the render settings in different ways, in case it's a UI issue. Here's a few different ways to get there:
a. change menu set to rendering (F6 hotkey, or change it to rendering in dropdown in the top left), and go to render>render settings...
b. open up a render view (like you said still worked) and in the render view window go to Options>Render setings...
3. Another thing to possibly try is changing the output renderer to another one. If you're still in rendering menu set you should be able to swap that under Render>Render using..., or if you have a render window open you can select options>render using... . Maybe try maya hardware, or maya software.
If that fixes it, then you know there's something up with Arnold or Turtle or Mental Ray or whatever.
I hope that helps you narrow it down! If none of that works, it may need a reinstall, or someone with more Maya knowledge than I have haha. Best of luck!
