CS5 Crashes during Merge to HDR on Windows XP

Question

HI,
CS5 crashes when I try to create an HDR from 3 RAW (CR2) files (select 3 files in MiniBridge, then select "Merger to HDR Pro" from tools ICON).  It goes through the steps of building a composite image in CS5.  I see a lot of entries being inserted into the history panel and see my RAW images show up as layers 1 by1.  Eventually I get a progress box for "Update Lens Profile Database cache" followed by a progress box for "Align Selected Layers based on content".  It crashes a few seconds after the "align layers" progress box appears.  By this I mean that CS5 dissappears from the screen and I get a pop up saying "Adobe Photoshop CS5 has encountered a problem and needs to close" Etc. This error box allows me to send an error report to Microsoft (whopee).  Bridge stays active in my System Tray.  When I tried the merge additional times (4 to be exact), the same thing happened each time.  This was running patch level 12.0.2 in first 3 attempts, and 12.0.03 in last two attempts.
To resolve this I reinstalled CS5, updated to patch 12.0.03, and tried again.  Same sequence of events.
My next resolution attempt was to completely uninstall CS5 first, using the un-install feature in Windows Control Panel and also checking the "Remove Preferences" check box on the Adobe uninstall screen.  I then reinstalled it, updated to patch 12.0.03 and tried again.  Same thing.
To check my sanity (and to see if there was a problem with the specific photos), I installed CS5 on my lap top (running Windows/7 home) and was successfully able to merge the same 3 photos using the same steps.  So, it seems the issue is not with the photos but some interaction between CS5 and Windows/XP.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks -- Dan

Answer 1

Enable installer logging as per [this|http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223300] MS kbase and see what the logs tell you.
Ludek