InDesign CS4 crashes when I export for epubs

Question

Every time I choose "Export book for digital editions...." in the book menu, the program sometimes (but not always) exports to the epub format -- but then InDesign crashes and closes.  Sometimes there is an epub saved; sometimes there is not.
This is the error message I get:  "Runtime error:  R6025 - pure virtual function call".  Makes no sense to me, and it happens every time, no matter what other programs I do or do not have open.
I'm running Win XP SP3 and have plenty of memory.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Good morning (for me, at least). OK, let's try to catch up.
I am still not 100% clear what your actual problem is. Perhaps you can start by restating it clearly and unambiguously.
Has it changed since June?
You might post a screenshot of the way you have the TOC set up.
But the first step is to figure out if it happens with a brand new document that is untainted by your existing document. Perhaps something in your current document is making InDesign misbehave. So make sure that TOC export works right from a fresh document.
After that, then the task is to figure out what about your document is causing the problem. Exporting to IDML is a good step to clearing corruption, but is not 100% definitive. But if it works, great. Other steps including using the Pages (panel) > Move Pages function to move pages between documents, and also exporting individual stories to InDesign Tagged Text and then re-importing them into new documents. You can also export some items as snippets, though this is likely to have the same effect as IDML, but somewhat more self-contained (think "IDML Export of this page only.")
In short, this is Divide and Conquer. The problem could be in a story, in a style, on a page, in an image, etc., etc.
Additionally, you might want to consider ponying up $40 and engaging Adobe Support: http://adobe.com/go/supportportal.
Unfortunately support for CS4 is somewhat waning (it is 3 versions old!), and Adobe Support is not always stellar at solving problems quickly. Still, they are an option to consider.
Also, I'm definitely not an EPUB person. Hopefully when you post the details of what exactly you're doing some of the EPUB folks will still be paying attention to this thread and can point out any obvious issues they are aware if ("Hey! It's a known bug if you use the letter é in your EPUB TOC! Just remove it and you're good!" or whatever).
You ask:
Do you know what I can do to fix the stack problem?  Is that an Adobe problem or a Windows problem?  I'm waaay beyond the limits of my expertise here.
It's not a "problem" per se -- the stack is a data structure that stores state about functions calls made by programs. Under normal circumstances, when a program crashes -- that is, when the operating system detects that a program has done something it should never do, such as tried to access a region of memory that does not belong to it, the operating system forcibly terminates the program -- the stack reflects information about the function that was currently executing, and the function that called it, and the function that called it, etc., etc., typically 20-50 levels deep.
Depending on exactly why the program faulted, sometimes this information is not available. For instance, if the program failure that caused the crash involved corruption on the stack.
Often the stack can give us useful clues about the nature of the crash, and those clues can help us avoid the crash. Simple example: "Oh, this crash is related to the third party extension Frobozz Magic Font! Turn it off!"
I just posted a question about the corrupted stack in the Microsoft forum, and they replied only Adobe can fix it.  It's apparently not a Microsoft problem.
They are, to a first order, correct. When InDesign crashes, it's an Adobe problem. The stack issue is a low-level diagnostic and is unlikely to be a real problem. But certainly no one could fix it without altering the InDesign program, and only Adobe can do that.
I'm getting pretty nervous about this; I have clients screaming for their books, and I'll have to refund some money if this isn't solved.  Whatever you can do would really be appreciated!
I think you need to present us with a lot more information about your problem.
Precise steps to reproduce it.
Screenshots showing how you have it set up.
Copies of files that exhibit it.
That we can try to reproduce it, see if it is specific to your machine or your document, give recommendations on how you can work around or avoid it, etc.
And seperately, aside from all of those things, is getting the problem fixed. Though if it happens in CS4 and not in CS5.5, well, then it's unlikely that a fix will be forthcoming. Adobe just isn't updating CS4 any more. They're hardly updating CS5 and CS5.5, and CS6 is on the horizon.
Oh, and if you're willing to throw money at the problem, you can look at upgrading. EPUB support has changed dramatically in CS5.5 (for the better, I am told, but I don't speak from personal experience), so it's likely that any problems you saw with it under CS4 will be very very different [and hopefully gone!] in CS5.5.