Beach Ball on FCP Startup and...

Hey,

I have a G4, gig of Ram, 2 internals w/ a capacity of 11GB. I just picked up a second LaCie external FW drive a week or two ago. I have FCP 4.5 HD, and a Canon GL-2. I initially linked the two external drives together via FW 800, but...since about that time, I've been having some 'nice' little trouble starting (and running anything (including Log and Capture) in...) FCP. I've tried just using the original LaCie drive I have, I've tried various combinations of steps when starting FCP and plugging the camera in. But, FCP just gives me the 'beach ball of death' until I unplug the camera (apparently irregardless of time spent waiting). Any ideas?

O

So you are daisy chaining the camera to one of the laCie drives? You really shold just go and get another Firewire card, install it and use that.

I've got the camera plugged into the internal drive, import the video clips ono one of the internal drives (78GB out of 111GB free on the internal drive it's being imported to...all other programs are not running on OS X, 10.4.2) then copy the imported files over to one of the external drives once the've been imported onto the internal. I've tried replacing the FW cable from the camera to the computer...same problem occurs. When I unplug the camera from the FW, the program appears to work fine/good.

Sorry, I don't quite get this? What is with the copying? Why not set your scratch disk to one of the LaCies rather than capturing to your internal drive then moving the files over?

Start by throwing away preferences and repairing permissions. Then take away all firewire devices and try capturing to the internal drive. If that works then add one FW drive until it won't work. That way we can narrow down where the problem lies.

It sounds like you have a drive that is too full and a very complex project that is choking FCP. Try starting up by loading up FCP not by selecting that project but by selecting the program icon. my guess is that will load properly.

Good luck!

Kevin

BTW, multiple external fw drives is asking for trouble, it can be done and has been done but your finding out what many have before you. it can be very problematic.

The G4 and FCP likes it better when the camera is the only device plugged in to the FW port.

Sorry Mike...I'll try starting over, and maybe that'll help clear things up...I have 2 internal drives on my G4, and have increased the RAM to 1GB. I have FCP4.5 HD, and a Canon GL-2. I also got one LaCie external drive a number of months ago. When I got that external drive, I tried having that as my scratch disc, but I had trouble getting that to work (I guess others did also). So, I set me scratch disc to the internal drive that currently has about 78GB of free space (on a 120GB internal). I had been able to import footage onto the internal drive (and I usually was able store it there while importing more footage, until I got down to somewhere around 20-30GB of free space on that internal drive). I would then transfer the footage over to my LaCie drive to be stored there and open up more space on the scratch disc so I could import more footage as I needed. That sysem seemed to work fine for me, but recently I felt like I needed more space to store footage. So, I got a second LaCie disc (brand new), and tried daisy chaining them together. About that same time, I begain having trouble Logging and Capturing (with, and since, without the second external drive daisy chained). When I had my camera plugged into the computer, FCP freezes up and gives me that beach ball until I unplug the camera (then the program seems to work like 'normal' (but, obviously without the camera attached)). I've tried changing FW cables, along with various orders of starting FCP up and plugging my camera in/turning it on. Nothing apparently has changed. At this point, I'm not even plugging my second external drive into anything unless/until I need to copy something over, or need the footage on that drive to edit a project.


-Kevin, thanks for the info...I just trashed the preferences and unplugged the one (the second one was already unplugged) external drive. It appears to be working so far.

O

Brad, I've been waiting until the computer's started up and 'ready to go' before plugging my camera in...

Seems to be working fine now...thanks for the help
O