Bridge CS5 won't open at all, crashes immediately

Question

Hi you guys,
I have been using Photoshop CS5 for a number of months now, without any problems. Yesterday, just suddenly, Bridge just bombed out. And I mean it crashes completely, not even a spinning ball or a 'stop responding', it just disappears from the screen. The first time the crash generated an Apple Crash Report, as well as an Adobe one. After that, when I click on the Bridge icon, it bounces, no dot appears on the dock under the icon and after a while the icon stops bouncing and another Apple Crash Report gets generated. It does not generate an Adobe crash report because, I suspect, the program does not go far enough.
I have tried the following:
Option clicked the B Icon - straight to Apple crash report.
Open B in PS, PS works perfectly and stays operational, but B generates an Apple crash report. I also tried mini B, the dock opens with message "waiting for Bridge", and nothing further happens.
Checked permissions in my Library for the following, all well:
Caches/Adobe/Bridge CS5
Application Support/Adobe/Bridge CS5
com.adobe.bridge4.plist file
Verified and repaired permissions in DU, just in case. No luck.
Created a new user account and tried to open B - straight to Apple crash report.
Deleted the PLIST file and the items in Cashes (as suggested in another tread)  - straight to Apple crash report.
I have not yet tried a reinstall. I upgraded to CS5 from CS3 and I still have it sitting on my hard drive. In a previous thread I asked what to do with CS3 and the consensus was to leave well alone. Everything worked and I did not need the disk space. In fact, Bridge CS3 still opens without a problem. If a reinstall is necessary, how do I go about it then? Do I
deregister CS3 and CS5 and uninstall and reinstall the whole lot?
deregister and uninstall and reinstall CS5 only?
don't deregister and just reinstall the whole lot without uninstalling it first?
don't deregister and just reinstall CS5 only without uninstalling it first?
And if I have to uninstall, do I have to run one or all of the cleanup utilities of Adobe?
I have also not contacted Adobe help because I have an American copy of Photoshop and live in Europe. That disqualifies me from Adobe support.
Here is my system:
iMac 5 with 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Mac OS X 10.6.6
Adobe CS5 12.0.2
Bridge CS5 4.0.4.2
Thanks in advance!
Jay
And for you guys who can read the gibberish, here is some of the crash report:
Process:         Adobe Bridge CS5 [698]
Path:            /Applications/Adobe Bridge CS5/Adobe Bridge CS5.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Bridge CS5
Identifier:      com.adobe.bridge4
Version:         4.0.4.2 (4.0.4.2)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [132]
Date/Time:       2011-02-12 23:07:18.163 +0100
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567)
Report Version:  6
Interval Since Last Report:          2508 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           1
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   1
Anonymous UUID:                      CFAC5A0D-23FB
Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x00000000035ef0a4
Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Thread 0 Crashed:  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   AdobeCoolType                  0x035ef0a4 0x35ec000 + 12452
1   AdobeCoolType                  0x038c0c69 0x35ec000 + 2968681
2   dyld                           0x8fe0ed6d ImageLoaderMachO::doModInitFunctions(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&) + 235
3   dyld                           0x8fe0d31e ImageLoader::recursiveInitialization(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, unsigned int) + 246
4   dyld                           0x8fe0d2c2 ImageLoader::recursiveInitialization(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, unsigned int) + 154
5   dyld                           0x8fe0d2c2 ImageLoader::recursiveInitialization(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, unsigned int) + 154
6   dyld                           0x8fe0d3d1 ImageLoader::runInitializers(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&) + 61
7   dyld                           0x8fe024a9 dyld::initializeMainExecutable() + 134
8   dyld                           0x8fe07950 dyld::_main(macho_header const*, unsigned long, int, char const**, char const**, char const**) + 4189
9   dyld                           0x8fe018b1 dyldbootstrap::start(macho_header const*, int, char const**, long) + 779
10  dyld                           0x8fe01057 _dyld_start + 39
Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x0392e78c  ebx: 0x038c0c45  ecx: 0x8fe44840  edx: 0x0000ff01
edi: 0x038c1080  esi: 0x00000000  ebp: 0xbfffd688  esp: 0xbfffd66c
  ss: 0x0000001f  efl: 0x00010202  eip: 0x035ef0a4   cs: 0x00000017
  ds: 0x0000001f   es: 0x0000001f   fs: 0x00000000   gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x035ef0a4
Binary Images:
[VERY LONG LIST WITH LOTS MORE GIBBERISH]
Model: iMac5,1, BootROM IM51.0090.B09, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.16 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.9f4
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1600, ATY,RadeonX1600, PCIe, 128 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x87), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.1)
Bluetooth: Version 2.3.8f7, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD2500, 232,89 GB
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R 
USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8501, 0xfd400000
USB Device: Hub, 0x050d  (Belkin Corporation), 0x0237, 0xfd100000
USB Device: Extreme III USB2.0 Reader/Writer, 0x0781  (SanDisk Corporation), 0xa1a2, 0xfd110000
USB Device: Hub in Apple Pro Keyboard, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x1003, 0x5d100000
USB Device: Apple Pro Keyboard, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x020c, 0x5d130000
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8206, 0x7d100000
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8240, 0x7d200000
FireWire Device: d2 quadra (button), LaCie, Up to 400 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: d2 Quadra (button), LaCie, Up to 400 Mb/sec
Message was edited by: JfromSA

Answer 1

Hi guys,
Thanks for your time and trouble. Much appreciated.
I haven't been back because my iMac went from bad to worse and in the end I've had a complete system crash. The 2007 iMac G5 I have, is notorius for screen problems. Mine went pop in 2009 after only 18 months of use and was replaced by Apple after a war of words and overwhelming evidence of similar problems for that model on the internet. During that episode the machine was shut down with the power button several times, by me, by the shop and also by the technicians who had to diagnose and repair the computer (I have often wondered why Apple does not have an equivalent of the 'Windows' button, because via that it's easy to shut down a PC blind: Windows button>U>Return . . . the OS shuts down. Not clever of a company who regards themselves as 'Quality' with a self proclaimed capital Q). I suspect my computer picked up some hardware damage with the constant hard shutdowns. I was actually waiting for the next problem, I never really trusted the machine completely. But, as time passed, I got relaxed about it and did not notice the small signs developing like Bridge (and to a lesser extent, Photoshop) actually slowing down more and more the last couple of weeks. Now, in retrospect I can say that, but it was really very subtle. I did, after the screen episode, got into a routine of backing up my system regularly.
After the Bridge problem began, I tried a re-install, a Time Machine restore and eventually started fiddling with Disk Utility, trying to fix the hard drive. To make a long story short, all I get now when I power up the machine is a white screen with a spinning disk under the Apple emblem. I do know that the internal hard drive had issues because that was reported by Disk Utility, I still do not know what the damage is because I still have to take the machine in for repairs.
In the meantime, I am working on another iMac. I have installed all my software from scratch and I'm now trying to restore my old system - my PS actions, ACR actions, all my mails and other documents and my music. The problem I now have is that I had my user account encrypted with File Vault, while backing up with Time Machine. To everyone doing that, please don't - turn File Vault off and then back up. All my carefully backed-up files are now encrypted and can only be accessed with my broken computer! I can NOT restore my system to another computer! With older versions of Mac OS X (and, probably Time Machine), it's possible to use Finder to navigate to the encrypted back-up folder, double-click it and access your data with your master password and restore it by simply dragging and dropping the files on the new computer (but under no circumstances delete or change the back-up files in any way! And applications would, most probably not drag and drop without a problem, but there I stand to be corrected). With OS X 10.6 it is not possible any more to access data via Finder in that way. I know, because I can access my data up to end 2009, the rest is there but not accessible. I have searched everywhere on the internet and as yet, have not found a solution.
The other problem with Apple, I found out, is that in normal operations, it works so well and all is so easy that I don't really read any instructions. There is no need. Everything just happens, it's actually too intuitive. Not once, while setting up File Vault or Time Machine, was I warned that it might be a problem. Now, when I poke around on the internet, there are many posts that warn against that but I did not search for them because I had no clue! I just hope, after the faulty parts on my G5 is replaced, I can get into my back-ups. I shall keep searching and trying to find a solution. If I get one, I shall post here again for those of you with similar problems. I know this is no longer a Bridge or Adobe problem, I just thought I must report back, maybe the knowledge will help someone else.
Cheers,
Jay