1) I geocode off of the "street_address" fields, not "mailing_address"
2) Shouldn't the locator handle null values and simply not gain the scoring weights? I know there are sporadic missing values throughout the datasets.
3) I'm not positive what you mean by CA locator? The zip locators in my composite are from a statewide and a national dataset, both teleatlas (different years), both build on ZIP5 locators.
3a) Field mapping is simple with TA data. Address points where standardized using the tool, the streets come ready to geocode, zips are simple. I can send you my config spreadsheet. I left all the default input mappings for my purposes for now.
4) I've attached what dmp files I could
5) Like I said, they've worked and they haven't. Sometimes I can go all morning okay, sometimes three crashes in a row. The same dataset/locator will crash, and then immediately work. New mxd's, only one table added (the only layer) at a time, re-add the locator to the manager. I'm trying to keep it clean an simple.