crash in halion sonic se

trying to load the Iconica Opus test project - but just crashes out
no .dmp file created but it logs:

Faulting application name: Cubase10.5.exe, version: 10.5.0.68, time stamp: 0x5da4e875
Faulting module name: HALion Sonic SE.dll, version: 3.3.1.77, time stamp: 0x5d921adc
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000008e1200
Faulting process ID: 0x1388
Faulting application start time: 0x01d5a7933cba64d0
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 10.5\Cubase10.5.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Steinberg\Shared Components\HALion Sonic SE\HALion Sonic SE.dll
Report ID: 5f1e6dcc-2efe-4ca9-9070-f358c040e71c
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

win10 - 64 gig memory
wiped the preferences
reinstalled
still crashing
any clues ?