FrameMaker 11 trial version crashing on save and cross-reference insertion

Question

Hi everyone,
I've recently started a new position. My prior background was heavily DITA, and I'd describe my FrameMaker experience as late beginner or early intermediate. The new position uses FM exclusively though, so I've been on a steep learning curve lately.
I'm using the trial version of FrameMaker 11, downloaded about two weeks ago, until the PO for my full FM 11 license is processed. I'm working in book and document files that have been upgraded, I believe, from FM 9 to FM 10 and then from FM 10 to FM 11. All of my colleagues are still using FM 10, with a mind to upgrade to FM 11 in the spring as our new budget comes through (I am, so to speak, the FM 11 guinea pig for the group).
My workstation is a brand new HP Elitebook laptop running Windows 7 64-bit (I believe our IT department downgraded it from Windows 8). Windows is fully up-to-date. My trial version of FM 11 is 11.0.1.382 and also up-to-date as of this message.
My issue: FM 11 randomly crashes several times a week, sometimes once a day or so, sometimes when I try any of the following:
Saving all files in a book (using Shift + the File menu command)
Saving individual document files (generally using the Save icon in the tool bar)
Attempting to insert a cross-reference (placing the insertion point within the document, then opening the Cross-Reference tool in the right-hand side bar)
The crash takes the appearance of FM freezing for several seconds, then the dreaded message window opening with the words "FrameMaker has detected a serious error and must quit", with columns of error codes below.
I've googled and binged and not found anything for this issue in FM 11, so I thought I'd post here. I have tried the following, based on somewhat similar discussions I've seen for crashes in earlier versions of FM)
Mif-washing the files
Working in the Structured FrameMaker interface instead of the Unstructured
Neither of these has worked. FM 11 trial continues to crash. It doesn't happen often; I'd say that I'm able to successfully able to perform the above tasks 20 times or so, with the crash on the 21st. But on a busy day, that's a few crashes a day.
To mitigate damage, I have autosave set to every two minutes and gotten in the habit of only having one or two documents open, instead of all in a book, to minimize the number of recovery files I need to process.
After one of the initial crashes, I did as Adobe asked and forwarded the crash report to them for troubleshooting.
My colleagues are watching all this very closely, and my troubles might influence our decision to upgrade from FM 10 to FM 11. So any insight into this issue would be appreciated!
Cheers,
Eric

Answer 1

Eric,
The multitude of unesolved x-refs may due to the font issues when updating the book. During an update, if the files aren't open, FM tries to open them in the background but if it encounters an error like a missing font, it skips the file and then any x-refs to that file are unresolved. This can cascade to make things look really worse than they are.
What is your default printer when you start FM? It should be the Adobe PDF prnter instance. If not, then you might want to insatll the Sundorne SetPrint utility (http://www.sundorne.com/FrameMaker/Freeware/setPrint.htm) thta will automatically set this for your FM sessions only.
One other place where fonts can hide is in table definitions. The catalog stores the font information (and not just the explicit paratag) of the cells in the header and first row. As Jeff mentions, you need to check the MIF file in detail. An excellent tool for quickly browsing your MIF is Graham Wideman's Mifbrowse (http://www.wideman-one.com/gw/tech/framemaker/mifbrowse.htm).