debug OK, release kaput - same code.

[Silas Tomkyn Combermache]

Hello, this is my first post.
I am a cpp wannabee, but I have compiled c and basic for a while (hobbyist-student).
The source code is from the official Qt book, second editon, chapter two - the find dialog.
I am using Visual Studio 2008 with the binary download plugin.
The problem is that the executable from the release version causes a catastrophic error, and crashes.
The executable from the debug configuaration runs just fine, and there is no source code difference.
I have attached a screen copy of the error dialog, and the build log.

There is no compile error message (default error report setting) when I build the release version, but I found a curious error in the build log (html) file:
":VCReportError
echo Project : error PRJ0019: A tool returned an error code from "Moc'ing finddialog.h..."
exit 1
:VCEnd"

However, the exe file is created despite this error, but it has the problem I mentioned. The same source code works fine in the QtCreator ide, both debug and release (of course).

The Visual Studio setup should be good because I can create Qt project solutions from scratch, from Qt pro files, and from the provided examples and they build and run successfully. I just can't think what could be going on here. Is it some kind of meta object compiler snafu?
Thanks,