Keep Getting Adobe RoboHelp 9 has stopped working Message

Question

I am running on Windows 7 Professional, SP1, 4GB RAM, 64-bit OS, with Administrative privileges using Adobe RoboHelp version 9.0.1.232. I am creating projects on my C drive and linking them to Word 2010 docx files that are on the network then generating them as AIR files for testing purposes at this point. Each linked document is a technical manual (with a TOC and index) having anywhere between 100 and 1000 pages. The plan is to create a project for each of the 20 manuals then link them together and generate a Master Project as an AIR file to distribute to our customers. The manuals contain flowcharts, bullets, numbered lists, images, tables, hyperlinks, etc with approximately 100 custom styles defined in one Normal.dotm file. Only defined styles are used in each of the manuals and all manuals use the same Normal.dotm file. Each custom style is linked to a corresponding style in a custom RoboHelp css file used by all RH projects. 
I have a default project that is used to create each separate project which includes a linked docx file that contains each of the custom styles so I do not have to link each Word style to the corresponding RH style every time I create a project for a different manual. My process is this: create project, link docx file, change Properties to create new TOC, Index, Glossary, Generate the linked document, Update linked document (when applicable), generate the AIR file, then update the Word document (in Word) as necessary. I then Update the linked document in RH and generate the AIR file again....and keep doing that until it looks good.  So far, I have successfully created projects for 11 manuals with projects ranging in size from 20 to 50 MB. So I know the problem is not my styles, etc.
My problem is this....I will sometimes get the message 'Adobe RoboHelp 9 has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available'. Sometimes, I will get the message when the manual has been updated in Word and I select Update in RoboHelp while other times it occurs when I am first getting the project set up. Right now, I am getting this message when I select Generate for the linked manual. I checked my application log file and see that I am getting an EventID 1000, Task Category 100 error. The manual is 477 pages/7.6 MB and the RoboHelp project is 42 MB and has only two really small flowcharts.  I have successfully created a project for this manual a couple times before after updating the Word document for things I saw in the AIR file, but when I selected Update in RH, I would get the message and the project was then corrupt so I had to start over. I know it is not an installation problem because I can then open another project and it works fine.
Things I have tried without success: copied the linked manual to my C drive to remove the network aspect. Closed all other applications so only the Word document and RoboHelp are open. My experience has been that in most cases, RoboHelp is happier when I have the manual I am working with open in Word but have also tried it without Word running. I have tried creating the project on the root of C instead of in my folder. Tried it when no one else was on the network (5 am). In one case, I pulled out a chapter that was about 50 pages of flowcharts - which fixed that one. All our flowcharts are inserted into borderless tables as metafiles so they are not free-floating.
Any help anyone could give me as to why this is happening or what I can do differently so as to prevent this from happening would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Kathi

Answer 1

My inclination is that it is something in the projects or in the manuals being linked that is the culprit because that is where the consistency lies - projects were created identically and manuals all follow identical formats. The problem typically only occurs after the project has been successfully created and the manual is subsequently updated and I am syncing the manual in RH so I can generate a new AIR file. This is the first time the project has consistently corrupted every time I try to generate the Word document after linking it in RH. This makes little sense to me since it generated fine a couple weeks ago and I did nothing special when I updated it in Word yet when I tried to update it in RH, that is when it originally corrupted. The bottom line is that I cannot 100% trust that any project I run will work the next time. I end up just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.
My problems seemed to start once I went to RH9 (from RH8) because we had upgraded from MS Office 2003 to the 2010 version and I needed 9 for the docx extension. Like I said, it is not all the time - I can be beating my head against the wall getting one of the projects to work, then create 3 more projects that have no problems and then the next one leaves me wanting to throw my PC through a window....
Deleting the CPD does not corrupt the project, it just removes my default linked document that allows me to circumvent linking the styles individually for that project. Once I have a manual linked and I remove the CPD, it just creates a new one. What I am saying is that if I delete the CPD file, it does not prevent the project from corrupting nor does it make the corrupted project viable again.
thanks!
Kathi