FCP quits whenever I try to save project

Hi There,

I'm running FCP 4.5 HD, on a dual processor G5, and have a fairly large project (88 minutes, 152 MB). I now find that I'm unable to save the project. Even if I just open a previously saved project and try to save it without making any changes, I get a message that "The Application Final Cut Pro has unexpectedly quit". There is sufficient disk space. Do you have any idea what could be the problem and how to fix it? This is of course preventing me from getting any work done.

Thanks in advance,

Hava

<<<There is sufficient disk space.>>>

Everywhere? How large is the System Drive and how much room is there?

How many drives do you have connected? You need at least 10% free space on all the drives the machine can see whether or not you're using them for the show.

Are you using punctuation marks anywhere in your filenames? That will cause problems like this. Absolutely no "/" marks. Those cause all kinds of trouble.

Repair Permissions, Disk First Aid, and Trash Final Cut Preferences all come to mind.

If *everything* fails, disconnect everything from the machine. Everything, and try to run other applications. Open a large Photoshop picture and do a gaussian blur. If that fails, the basic machine may be in trouble and may need servicing.

Koz



Post Edited (06-14-06 09:46)

Hi Koz,

I have five drives connected, all have at least 10% free space. I'm not using any punctuation marks in file name.

I'm not clear on what you mean by Repair Permissions, Disk First Aid, and Trash Final Cut Preferences. Are these FCP settings?

When you say to disconnect everything, I assume you mean the hard drives and the internet connection.

Who would I go to for servicing?

I appreciate any help,

Thanks,

Hava

Read this

[www.lafcpug.org]

That's handy, isn't it? You know if you put chicken beaks before and after the address, it becomes clickable:

[www.lafcpug.org]

Koz

Yeah, but the problem is the URL or any word bracketed by chicken beaks doesn't show up in the email reply. Its a bug in this forums software. Thats why I only use it if I am starting the thread not replying to it.

Thanks. I tried all the suggestions on the page you referenced, and I was hopeful, but it didn't solve the problem. I'm thinking that perhaps I should upgrade to the new version 5.1, and that may solve the problem. DOes that sound plausible?

Hava

Michael Horton wrote:

> Yeah, but the problem is the URL or any word bracketed by
> chicken beaks doesn't show up in the email reply. Its a bug in
> this forums software. Thats why I only use it if I am starting
> the thread not replying to it.
>
Don't forget the very reliable trick of using "[ u r l]" and "[/ u r l]" tags around a web address to make it clickable in the phorum AND visible in email. It is very easy and tempting to use chicken beaks as quote characters to quote a previous post, but that does render that quote invisible in email.

BTW, remove the embedded spaces from those tags I described above to use them, if I didn't have the spaces they would execute rather than display. And don't use the quotes.

Scott

<<<I'm thinking that perhaps I should upgrade to the new version 5.1>>>

That rarely works. Upgrading a damaged system could lead to reinstalling all the software fresh and permanently damaging your show.

What happened when you tried the massive disconnect and large Photoshop file trick? The first thing that Apple or a servicing company is going to do is return the computer to factory specifications (read *without* all the stuff you added to it like drives and extra memory) and see if it still works. If it does, they had the machine back to you and tell you it's working perfectly, have a happy day.

Nobody will service a machine with a lot of third party stuff connected to it. It's too likely that the extra stuff is damaged and dragging the machine down. There's no easy way to test for that.

Are you protected under AppleCare?

Koz

Actually there is a bug there too. The /url in brackets attaches itself to the URL in the email reply and if one clicks on the URL it gives him/her a 404. Example

[www.lafcpug.org][/url]

Sucks I know.

I just tried, as a test, to open and Save As a previous version of the project, and that worked. Which seems to indicate to me that my problem is some sort of corruption of the last version of the project (Hopefully that's all it is...), and not an overall system problem.

Still, I'm thinking of upgrading because I've been having so many problems, often revolving around saving of the project file... Would it be correct to assume that FCP version 5.1 is less buggy?

If Save As works then you are fine. Do NOT upgrade. That wont solve this. You need to solve it, finish your project and then upgrade. Might be a good idea to run a disc utility on all your drives. Disk Warrior is good. In meantime create a folder on your desktop and keep using Save As. Call you saves project_6_15_06 and project_6_16_06 etc

"I just tried, as a test, to open and Save As a previous version of the project, and that worked. Which seems to indicate to me that my problem is some sort of corruption of the last version of the project (Hopefully that's all it is...)"

so open you problem project,
copy all, and paste into a new project.

5.1 is the dual binary version,
made to work on both the old chips, and the new intel ones.
it's pretty new.
still, i haven't heard many bad reports,
but then almost no one is upgrading &*unless* they have migrated to an intel system,
so who knows?

Mike's right, you gotta fix this problem before you upgrade

if you;d never trashed your prefs till now, i'd say stick with 4.5 for a bit longer.
that might fix some of the bugginess you've been getting.


nick

So here's the tricky question - How do I know what's the problem with my project? It looks fine and plays fine until I try to save it. Do you have any suggestions on how I could figure this out?

Thanks again!

Hava

no idea.
other than copy/paste to new project.

but is it really just the one project, or ANY project?

in which case it's not the project, but something else.


nick