FINAL CUT 7.0.3 DIED AFTER SNOW LEOPARD UPGRADE - Tried ProKit Work Around - WHAT NOW?

Working on a Early 2008 MBP 2x3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon - Running 32 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB - DIMM

Were working on the last complete version of Leopard, Running as up-to-date as it would go.

Went to upgrade to Snow Leopard to take advantage of the speed improvements, QT 10 etc. (CAUSED A KERNEL PANIC TO UPGRADE WITH THE OSX COMBINED UPGRADE!!!) - If you have a solution for that I'd LOVE to hear it!.

Alas, went through and did one more re-install of Snow Leopard, NOT upgrading the OSX COMBINED UPGRADE. This leaves us working at 10.6.3 Kernel Version Darwin 10.3.0

At some point, it appears that the ProKit Upgrade was done (initially when the first Combined Upgrade was done). THIS is what I imagine has killed FINAL CUT PRO 7.

I have been through the sticky for the work around to install ProKits 5.0 & 5.1 to no avail. Continuing crashes. I haven't seen where I can find the 6.5 ProKit Upgrade, or if this is even a workable solution.

So I am left with a computer that works now on 10.6.3. But even after going through the suggested processes with the ProKit replacements, I continue to get the following error message:
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x000000000000001c
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

What are my options here? A FULL REINSTALL of FCP 7? (With or without the ProKit upgrade?)
Should I upgrade to Lion and do the install of FCP 7 there?
Do I have any other options in between?

Please help!

Thank you in advance

Stefan Rhys
Filmmaker
Coffee Cart Productions and Consulting
www.coffeecartproductions.com

626.679.0813
SRhys@CoffeeCartProductions.com

Wipe your hard drive clean and install SN. Then install FCP. That's what pretty much everybody has been doing.

Forgive my over-cautiousness, Russ. . .

Wiping my hard drive. . . do I dare do the combined update to bring Snow Leopard up to 10.6.8? Or leave it as is?

And then. . . Do I dare do the FCP Update or leave things be?

I appreciate the help!!

YEs, go for the latest SL, and the latest FCP7. That is a known working set. The Kernel panic could be unrelated to this process though, so if it happens again, I would investigate other avenues.

Yes, you can do the combined update to bring Snow Leopard up to 10.6.8, and update FCP7 to 7.0.3, I be leave it is.

I have always had luck upgrading with this sequence:

-Clone or replace your current hard drive. Keep the old setup handy, you know that it works!

-De-authorize any software that requires online licensing.

-Install the OS. Run Software update to get the to the most up to date version. Run it a second time to be sure you got everything. Now and then it takes a couple of passes.

-Install the latest drivers for your hardware (Capture Card, RAID interface, etc.)

-Install FCP. Run software update a couple of times.

-Install other Media related packages (Adobe, Avid etc)

-Follow the procedures for updating those packages as you install

-Install the latest version of your plugin packages.

-Install other software. (Office, iWork etc.)

-Follow the procedures for updating those as well.

This is a pretty time consuming process, budget a full day. To prep you will have to inventory your system, noting all your hardware, software and plugins, find all your licenses, and know what procedures each software package requires for updates and licensing. It really is a PITA. It also means you will have your best chance at a stable system.