FCP unexpectedly quitting

I am running FCP 4 on a G4 Dual 450 Desktop with a brand new 100 gig hard drive and maximum ram, which I uploaded the upgrade of HD.
Both programs have constantly unexpectedly quit, usually after digitizing since that is mainly what I use that computer for. The hard drive also continuously crashes after falling asleep.
Any suggestions?

That screams memory problems, doesn't it?

Can you put the original memory back in (carefully)? The machine may not work terribly well, but it should not crash.

The other possibility is a bad hard drive. Start the machine from the System CD and run Disk Utilities, First Aid pointed at the new System Drive.

Koz

The original memory was a 512 stick, still in there, a 256 (now replaced with a 512) and a 128 (now replaced with a 512). I have also added a 4th 512. I've had my computer with my Mac-fanatic repair guy and he has already done all those things you suggested. The problem still existed with the original ram and we've switched it around several times to test it. We've reinstalled FCP4 but my project is in HD now, do I need to trash the HD upgrade and do the upgrade online again?
Thanks
Amy

You seem to be into Heavy Maintenance territory.

Forget Final Cut. Get the basic machine working. If you continue to push a high level program on a broken machine, you may just dig yourself deeper and deeper.

Do any other applications crash? I know you use this thing for capture only, but it would be nice to know that if you launched a very large Photoshop file and did a gaussian blur on it, that the machine stayed working. I'm guessing it would not. It may be worth installing a license of Photoshop to figure this out if you have one.

I'm guessing the machine is long out of Apple Care, right? Do you have the Operating System CDs? That's important.

Reduce the machine to a small and simple as you can make it--or get the Mac Fanatic to help you with that. Pull off all the external drives, tablets, oddball mice or other pointing devices. Can you go back to the old hard drive? I know it isn't big enough, but it may be the only one still healthy.

Pull out all the memory that didn't come with the machine. Make the machine look as much as possible as it did when you took the plastic off on the first day.

Start the machine from the System CDs, open up the Disk Utilities and do some of the tests. First Aid, etc. I bet the original machine will pass these tests. Then put one thing back, say a stick of memory. Then two sticks.


If you strip the machine down to a simple baby and it's still unstable, you may have killed off the System Board. On a machine like that, it may be time to shop for a new machine.

Oh, wait. One more. Find somebody with a voltmeter and measure the battery on the System Board. It should be *over* the voltage listed on the battery. A 3v battery should measure around 3.2V. If there is something wrong with that battery, that will cause all sorts of troubles,

We'll beat it up, but you may need to get used to never working with this machine again.

Koz

amy, are you still on FCP 4.0?
very buggy.
upgrade to FCP4.5 if you can.

oh...
i see you've done that.

"do I need to trash the HD upgrade and do the upgrade online again?"
not if you save the upgrade package.
next time, if you;re using software update, go to the options menu (i think that;s it)
you can choose to download and keep package,
so you don't have to go online again, should you need to re-install.

sorry,
not much help.

good luck,
nick

Koz,
The computer was having this same problem with the original hard drive and ram which is why I replaced those those things in the first place. Like I said, I have reinstalled Final Cut 4 from the original disk and now I am trying to find out if I need to trash the HD upgrade and redownload it or if I can just run it as is. Does the HD upgrade have any connection to the Final Cut 4 program? How do I perform complete trashing of the old upgrade. I think someone put a hacked version of Final cut 4 on my computer at one point and then upgraded to HD online. I want to get it off there entirely and make sure I'm not ever accidentally opening it if this could be the problem. I haven't seemed to be able to get a simple answer to this question yet. I am pretty computer illiterate so I need simple yes and no answers. Once I've gotten rid of the bad HD program, if that doesn't solve the problem; I'm going to check the battery like you said and then assume that it's the system board. Where can I get one of these battery testers, are they expensive?
Thanks
Amy

Being that you have a new 100gb drive, I would assume that you had to install the OS on that which means you are starting from scratch. So I would:
1) Buy a new battery and install that (they are only a few dollars and judging by the age of the machine it is probably due to be replaced)
2) Erase the drive and re-install the OS.
3) Before installing any more software make sure the machine is stable.
4) Re-install FCP 4 from the original disk. Check to see if that works.
5) Download the 4.5 update and install that.
6) Do not update to the latest Quicktime. Check with apple to se which is the best version to use with FCP4.5. It will probably be QT6.xx
7) Be very careful about automatic software updates. Make sure you understand what you are updating before proceeding with any.

Everyone has had really good advice, so do everything they have said. Before we upgraded to FCP 5, we were running 4.5HD with QT 7.0.1on a couple of Tiger G5s, we download upgraded to Quicktime 7.0.2. and both edit bays went nuts. I had strange solarized images turn up in the viewer and other bizarre things. We did all the normal trashing pref, repairing permissions etc. and nothing helped. We reinstalled 7.0.1 and everything ran fine. We didn't even try 7.0.3 when it came along. So I suggest you not run anything past 7.0.1 with 4.5HD.