FCP defaulting to incorrect external display in Digital Cinema Desktop

Just did some shuffling around of equipment in an office move, and am now having a head-scratcher.

I have 3 displays connected to my mac pro. 2 are connected to the ATI Radeon 3870. Let's call those displays 1 and 2. The third display is connected to the stock ATI 2600. Mostly used for things like email, ical, etc.

So...I've been using this basic setup for quite some time, although in this recent move, I did swap out one of the displays for a different one.

When I fire up FCP and turn on Digital Cinema Desktop preview, black screen is displayed on screen 3, rather than screen 2, which is where it should display. I don't get video out on screen 3 during playback. I realize this is because DCDP will only display on monitors connected to the primary video card.

I've trashed preferences, unplugged and replugged the displays, but it's still sending the video preview to screen 3. I can't restart right now because I have a huge compressor job running, but I will try that first thing tomorrow morning.

any other tips or tricks? Was the swap in monitors enough to trick the computer into sending video output to the incorrect display?

Have you tried changing the order of the displays in the Displays section of System Preferences?

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

yup, have tried that, as well as restarting. No go, yet.

Clay,

You may consider logging into a newly created user account, in order to see if other user settings are contributing to this behavior.

Also, some system settings may be a factor. I would also suggest resetting the SMC and PRAM.

You could also try using something like AppleJack or Onyx to run various system "maintenance" and "cleaning" operations (make sure you have things backed up first, just in case)...


-Dave

Clay - was it you that was having problems that we were collectively wondering were maybe to do with your graphics card in another post?

D-Mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Clay,
>
> You may consider logging into a newly created user
> account, in order to see if other user settings
> are contributing to this behavior.
>
> Also, some system settings may be a factor. I
> would also suggest resetting the SMC and PRAM.
>
> You could also try using something like AppleJack
> or Onyx to run various system "maintenance" and
> "cleaning" operations (make sure you have things
> backed up first, just in case)...
>
>
> -Dave

Good ideas...tried SMC, PRAM and applejack, nada. Need to try the new user thing--will do that first thing in the morning.

Jude Cotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Clay - was it you that was having problems that we
> were collectively wondering were maybe to do with
> your graphics card in another post?

I don't think so, but I don't have perfect memory, so it's possible.

What's so puzzling about this situation is that really the only changes in the setup were that everything was physically moved (very gently, by me personally) just around the corner to another office, and then that I swapped out the old monitor #3 for a different monitor #3. I've never had this issue before, so it's a little strange. Tomorrow's my last day at the office until the new year, so I may just hold off until then to try and sort everything out.

Dust? Sometimes USB and firewire points don't work well after a move because of dust. Maybe a related issue?

Just tried logging into a new user account, same issue.

I suppose it could be dust, but I've never had an issue with dust before--I guess there's always a first time!

clay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just tried logging into a new user account, same
> issue.
>
> I suppose it could be dust, but I've never had an
> issue with dust before--I guess there's always a
> first time!

You may want to consider removing and reseating your PCIe graphics cards (might as well blow out the dust inside your computer at the same time). Reset SMC and PRAM again.

Another idea... the new monitor... is it a digital display? Some cheaper monitors have DVI connections to the computer graphics card but actually work with an analog signal. You could try swapping monitors for each connection. And, as Jude mentioned, clean everything. I would suggest you reseat all connectors, check cables (there are cable testers available for this), etc.

Do all of the monitors show the normal Mac desktop, outside of FCP?

This is a hard issue to troubleshoot remotely...


-Dave

Good suggestions, Dave.

I'll try reseating the cards and blow out the dust bunnies.

The "new" monitor is actually an old 20" Apple Cinema display (DVI) that's been sitting around un-used since my boss upgraded his monitor 6 months ago.

All 3 monitors work fine outside of FCP.

clay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good suggestions, Dave.
>
> I'll try reseating the cards and blow out the dust
> bunnies.
>
> The "new" monitor is actually an old 20" Apple
> Cinema display (DVI) that's been sitting around
> un-used since my boss upgraded his monitor 6
> months ago.
>
> All 3 monitors work fine outside of FCP.

I guess if the cards and "new" monitor work fine outside of FCP, then they should be seated okay...

I wonder if some system level caching of the old monitor setup is a contributing factor (wouldn't be fixed by logging in as another user). You may try deleting the contents of the /Library/Caches and the /System/Library/Caches folder (close all apps first and reboot immediately afterwards).

One other thing to try would be to rearrange the monitors in the Displays System Preference.

Since this setup was working before your move, I didn't mention this earlier, but Apple doesn't recommend using FCS with more than two monitors connected to your Mac Pro (this was discussed a few months ago in a different thread). Here's the KB article. So, while it may have worked for you, it doesn't seem to be a supported configuration (?).

Hope you can sort this out.



-Dave