I wonder if this is LR failing to create a catalog or trying to load one? This can be checked by attempting to load a known-good catalog and, if it loads, this proves the creation is faulty. Here’s one I prepared earlier (ahem...) ftp://ftp.daveadams.me.uk/Test_Catalog_1.zip. This loads fine into LR v4.4 for me. Does it load for you?
Might be worthwhile sending me a sample catalog so that I can try loading it.
NB I'm assuming you know how to unzip archives. Shout out if not.