HELP! FCP lags make it impossible to use...

I've been editing a bunch of videos with my system over the past month, and everything has been working fine. All of a sudden, this weekend, my whole system is lagging. FCP won't play a normal (footage-only) time line without stopping, staggering, etc. It will appear to stop, (video and audio frozen) and then play a second or two before stuttering and repeating same thing I just described.

Do you have any thoughts what might be causing this?

Editing on:
Mac Pro4.1
Processor 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 6GB 1066 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

FCP 7.0.3

My scratch drive is set up on a 3TB external, with 1.67TB currently available.

I'm editing primarily video in DV NTSC format

Thanks for your help

Trash preferences time...


#44: FCP acting weird - Trash Prefs

Shane's Stock Answer #44: FCP acting weird or unusual. Just not like is normally should

If the program was working fine, and now isn't, or just isn't working the way it should, the first things to do are:

1) Trash your FCP preferences. Download the Preference Manager from Digital Rebellion: [www.digitalrebellion.com]

[www.kenstone.net]

2) Open the Disk Utility and Repair Permissions.

3) Shut down for 10 min. Go for a quick walk around the block and get SOME exercise today. Come back, turn on the computer and see how things are.

4) (optional) Do the Hokey Pokey and turn your self about. Results may vary.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

They do a wicked Hokey Pokey at Hooters go there and have some fun and come back.

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

Thanks. I did repair disk, but I'll try trashing preferences next. Appreciate the help.

Andy

Okay... your suggestions seemed to work... for a couple of days. Now everything is acting up again. Have trashed prefs a couple of times, disk util... etc. I even threw the moonwalk into back end of the hokey-pokey!

So I'm thinking it might be time to reinstall FCP. My concern is if I do that, will I lose all the cache and scratch disk info? How can I reinstall and preserve all of that information (probably about 1 TB worth of stuff)

Thanks,

Andy