Adobe Illustrator and InDesign CS5 crash when trying to place images. Happens around 5+ times a day.

Question

Hi there
This Mac is quite new and was originally a migration (using Migration Assistant) from an older Mac.
Illustrator and InDesign in CS5 were both crashing often and most of the time it's when placing an image (in either application) – it doesn't crash each time I try to place an image, but 90% of the crashes are when placing an image.
We tried lots of things, like cleaning out the fonts, clearing font caches etc. After several months of that, we decided to wipe the Mac clean and start from scratch. It has been reformatted with a clean install of the OS and only minimal additional software added. Although quite a few fonts have been reinstalled, they all validate in Font Book.
One other thing of note is that the Adobe Updater fails to complete an update and so we have had to update each application manually from the Adobe website.
I would be so grateful someone could help shed some light on what is going on. Here's an EtreCheck report. Can also provide crash reports from the Console if useful.
Thanks!
EtreCheck version: 2.0.6 (91)
Report generated 28 October 2014 13:33:49 GMT
Hardware Information: ℹ️
    iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) (Verified)
    iMac - model: iMac14,1
    1 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core
    8 GB RAM Upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel Iris Pro -
        S22D300 spdisplays_1080p
        iMac 1920 x 1080
System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Uptime: one day 4:4:52
Disk Information: ℹ️
    APPLE HDD ST1000LM024 disk0 : (1 TB)
    S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /  [Startup]: 999.35 GB (848.81 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB
USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
    Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
        Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard
    EPSON EPSON Scanner
    Apple Inc. MacBook Air SuperDrive
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
    Mac App Store and identified developers
Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
    [invalid?]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
    [running]    com.backblaze.bzserv.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
    [running]    com.backblaze.bzbmenu.plist Support
    [not loaded]    com.spotify.webhelper.plist Support
User Login Items: ℹ️
    iTunesHelper    Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
    MagicPrefs 2 (48)    Application (/Users/[redacted]/.Trash/MagicPrefs 2 (48).app)
    Spotify    Application (/Applications/Spotify.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.189 - SDK 10.6 Support
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.189 - SDK 10.6 Support
    AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 Support
    Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.4 - SDK 10.6 Support
    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
    Backblaze Backup  Support
    Flash Player  Support
    Growl  Support
Time Machine: ℹ️
    Auto backup: YES
    Volumes being backed up:
        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 999.35 GB Disk used: 150.53 GB
    Destinations:
        TimeMachine [Network]
        Total size: 599.66 GB
        Total number of backups: 52
        Oldest backup: 2014-07-03 13:25:07 +0000
        Last backup: 2014-10-28 12:28:22 +0000
        Size of backup disk: Adequate
            Backup size 599.66 GB > (Disk used 150.53 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
         2%    WindowServer
         1%    Adobe Photoshop CS5
         0%    bzfilelist
         0%    bzbmenu
         0%    fontd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    1.31 GB    Adobe Photoshop CS5
    610 MB    Adobe InDesign CS5
    490 MB    firefox
    292 MB    Finder
    215 MB    WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    90 MB    Free RAM
    3.19 GB    Active RAM
    3.28 GB    Inactive RAM
    996 MB    Wired RAM
    10.36 GB    Page-ins
    192 MB    Page-outs

Answer 1

Thanks, I will do.
I posted it here because this is happening on a clean drive/clean install and I have 10 other macs (including some of the same model) all running OS X 10.9.5/Adobe CS5 and not having this problem.