Thanks!

It looks like running Smasher might have been something I needed to do before I loaded all my fonts into FAP's Vault/Database.  I did run Apple's disk utiltiy and the latest version of Diskwarrior.

I still have the problem.  I sent an email to Insider software tech support and received a message back saying,

_____________________________________

"Hi . 

Thank you for submitting your question to us online. This matter has been assigned the following designation:

Case #(deleted): "Photoshop CS4 Freezes during Font Agent Pro 4 auto-activation"

An Insider Customer Advocate will respond to you by the next business day."

If this is urgent, (deleted).

Thank you, 

Insider Customer Service

_____________________________________

I received this reply from Font Agent Pro support:

"Hi Robert,

There are a few things that can be causing Photoshop to crash or give you program errors and here are a few things you can do to solve or prevent the issue

First Clear the font caches. Adobe products depend heavily on fonts and font caches so when they are corrupt or damaged, your apps can become unstable.

Insider has an application available called Smasher, that can clear these caches, along with Adobe and Microsoft caches. A demo version of the software is available at our website, www.insidersoftware.com. The demo software will allow you to clear your os font caches. To gain access to the full cache smashing suite, you will need to purchase Smasher.

Check for possible fonts in any of their system font folders to see if they have instances of duplicate fonts. Font conflicts will throw adobe apps into a tailspin as well.

Reset the Photoshop prefs by pressing Command+Option+Shift+Control as you launch the application. This can help if there is any issue with preferences.

Sometimes it is necessary to reset the tools in Photoshop. This usually helps in the instances of repeated crashes when using the type tool, or any other tool. Reset the tools by selecting the type tool and accessing the tool presets as seen below:"

(see attached jpeg)

I did all the things Font Agent Pro tech support suggested, accept check for possible instances of duplicate fonts in any of their system font folders, because I did not want to take the time at this point, and now the problem is cured, even with Font Agent Pro's Preferences set to Preferences / Activation / Reactivate fonts at startup: / with "Include manually activated fonts" and "Include auto-activated fonts" turned off and then restarting the machine.  Photoshop CS4 can let Font Agent Pro auto-activate without freezing or crashing after following the above steps.

Font Agent Pro works so much better than when I was only using PowerPC Macs with OS 10.4.11 and Font Reserve 3.1.4.  Their email tech support is decent too.

In follow up to this initial problem of Photoshop CS4 crashing:

A year ago I moved my Mac Pro from Tiger to Leopard and Photoshop CS4 (11.0.2) crashed dramaticly less often.  Now I'm running my Quad Core Mac Pro on a clean install of Snow Leopard and Photoshop CS4 is totally rock solid.  I'm also using Font Agent Pro 4.2.

Using Smasher to clear Adobe App font cashes does not reduce crashing and just makes Acrobat Pro run too slow.  Reseting Photoshop Preferences and resetting Photoshop's font tool preferences does make Photoshop more stable in Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard.

In Snow Leopard I have not had to reset anything in Photoshop or tweak Font Agent Pro to keep things rock solid.  It seems like Photoshop CS4 (11.0.2) and Font Agent Pro 4.2 are most optimized for Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8.