FCP 5.1.4 crashing a lot. What else can I do?

Running 5.1.4 on a G5 10.4.11 with all the updates. Plenty of RAM and open drive space. Media is on an eSATA striped raid, and FCP app is on the system drive. Autosave is on the system drive as well.

Frequently in the past couple of days FCP has been crashing on me. Actually, it's more just becoming totally unresponsive during playback and giving the spinning beachball until I force quit and restart. It's occurring on simple dvcpro50 projects as well as some plain dv projects.

I trashed prefs a couple days ago, but I'm still getting 2-3 of these crashes daily. I'm wondering if it might be somehow connected to FCP not being able to handle doing an autosave while playback is in motion?

Any ideas as to what might be causing this issue? I don't lose much work when this happens because I tend to save fairly frequently, but it's a very annoying occurrence that I'd hate to have when doing a client review or something else important....

thanks

How much is "plenty" of RAM and drive space? Give us the numbers, if only for the sake of ruling them out.


www.derekmok.com

8gb RAM. Not running any other programs besides browser and email. About 200 gb free on 1tb media drive (eSATA RAID).

How much free space on the system drive?

about 100 gigs free of 250 total on the system drive--sorry, should have included that with my previous post.

Do you know how to check the Crash Report for FCP in the Console? What code does it give for the crashes?

JK

_______________________________________
SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

How do you check FCP crash reports in the console?

John K Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do you know how to check the Crash Report for FCP
> in the Console? What code does it give for the
> crashes?
>
> JK


I checked Console, but since FCP isn't technically crashing (just hanging the system before I force-quit), there's nothing there with regards to FCP.

I would suspect a RAM problem. Try taking it down to 4G and see how it goes. If it's still happening, swap for the other 4G.

wouldn't faulty RAM show up in other areas of my work on this system as well? For instance, wouldn't it manifest itself while writing a document in Word, or an email in Mail? Why would it just bring about issues in FCP?

I may try that, but can't really do that right now. The hangs/crashes are limited to only a couple of times per day, and only when I'm working in FCP, so it's not a show-stopper....yet. I also don't know that they'd be reproducible if I did remove RAM to test. I'll deal with it until we can either figure out another fix, or until I have some time to spend with the system in testing mode.

Quote

How do you check FCP crash reports in the console?]

Twirl down the ~/Library/Logs in the left column and locate the CrashReporter, then twirl that down and find your crashed app there to view a report.

Quote

...but since FCP isn't technically crashing (just hanging the system before I force-quit), there's nothing there with regards to FCP.

Is there nothing in either the main console.log or system.log? Even if a program is just hanging there should be some log entry of the event.

Re: RAM
I'm with Clay on this one, if it was bad RAM I think he would see issues all over the place. Last time I had bad RAM I had kernel panics that caused apps to Unexpectedly Quit or gave me the Restart Screen of Death. Unless the RAM is fairly new it's probably not the culprit, yes?

Did you install or change ANYTHING in the days leading up to this behavior? Security update, Quicktime update, Prokit update, install new drivers, hardware, system utilities? Filters??

Just to make sure we've covered the bases, have you repaired permissions? Restarted? Do you have any disk repair utils like TechTool, Diskwarrior, Applejack? One easy thing to try would be to log out and then log back in under a new, "clean" user account with no extra system extension installed. If FCP runs under that user then there's something wrong with your current user account...

HTH, JK

_______________________________________
SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

I tend to update whatever shows up in Sofware Update, so I've done all the recent updates including Quicktime, Prokit and that Security update. Other than that, no new software or hardware installed on this machine in a while.

The RAM has been in use for nearly 3 years. I've no reason to suspect it, but certainly can't rule it out until testing it thoroughly.

I ran Diskwarrior within the past month, and also ran applejack earlier this week. I restart every morning, so that hasn't seemed to make a difference in this case.

Good reminder for me to try the new user thing--I'll have to try it and see if it makes a difference.

Frustratingly enough, within the past hour, the project I'm working on has hung/crashed about 4 times, often within a couple minutes of each other. If none of the suggestions above work, it may be time for a complete reinstall of the system. I keep things pretty clean, but I think I've only reinstalled once since I got the machine.

> I tend to update whatever shows up in Sofware Update

Really not a good idea. Never upgrade OS and QuickTime without doing some research first. Those upgrades are geared towards all Mac users and often screw up FCP for you.

I'd start the computer up with all USB, FireWire, modem, and other non-essential peripherals removed. Operate FCP and see if there's a problem. If not, then add the peripherals back one by one.


www.derekmok.com

Is it a particular piece of media that is causing the hang? Do you notice anything in common about what is happening onscreen at the time of the stalls?

the only commonality between the hangs seems to be that it happens during playback. It's almost as if FCP is trying to autosave at those moments but can't, so it hangs.

It looks like you may have a Quick Time problem - I have had a similar experience to this.

After my G5 power supply failed and was replaced together with the logic board by the local Apple service agent FCP began hanging on playback and wouldn't capture at all at any resolution. After 10 weeks of misery and the unit being returned several times I finally found the problem myself. The service agent had updated (without my knowledge) OSX which included not one, but two updates of Quick Time.

There is an Apple Support Document that says older versions of QT can leave some files hanging around on your system hard drive that may cause applications not to run - sorry I've thrown my hard copy away now! It gives instructions on how to remove them. However this all looked too complex for a non-computer expert like myself and the only solution for me was to erase the system drive and re-install all the software again. It fixed the problem.

Perhaps you could start by uninstalling QT and reverting to your original version.

Richard Thirkettle

I'm with Derek, and probably Shane on the upgrades. Stick with a system that works, and never go for an update until the same system has been beta tested.

What else you can do, after checking error reports, maybe using pacifist to downgrade QT, you could try disconnecting all external devices (especially drives) and seeing if the problem reoccurs. once or twice a day, you say? that seems fairly random. Does it happen on all autosave attempts or just on occasional autosave attempts (geez, i hate these random errors).

It sounds like a QT hang. But also, are you tugging around hour-long captures of DV50 clips? Or DV clips. On a G5? Or did you log and capture in bite-size sections (like ten minutes or so) like good editors should do.

MacFixit says one of the easiest fixes is a reinstall. Sometimes an install just doesn't clean up properly, and a second try does the trick.

But never upgrade MacOSX or FCP from Software Update. Go to the website and download the complete update. Do pay attention to the "best kit" approach, which I think is in the FAQ, is it not? For instance, MacOSX 10.4.8, QT 7.1.3, FCP 5.1.4 are part of a working kit, or something like it.

- Loren
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