Why does Motion keep crashing?

I'm a new MAC owner so please be nice :-)

Just bought a brand new G5, 2X2.5Ghz, 2.5G RAM. I updated the OS to 10.3.5.

I've had motion crash on me each time I try to use it. I'm opening templates and trying to replace the stills with some quicktime clips. Sometimes it just bombs, other times there is a color wheel that keeps turning.

The only thing I can think of is maybe it shouldn't use video, it only works with stills like the templates show? I tried making shorter clips but it still crashes. Is 2.5 Gig maybe not enough? Or is Motion just too green to use at this point. (V1) Please help.

thanks,
tom

Which video card did you buy?

It's the Radeon 9600.

td

I have been on the phone with apple for two days about motion crashing when doing simple things such as drag/drop of some media onto a layer to replace the cuurent media piece. The program will quit on the spot. Also have had the program quit when doing an export and it usualy quits right at about 90% done.... So after many hours of speaking with them, they came up with the answer that I should "trash the prefs" lame answer if you ask me...

The prefs, the ram, the fire wire drive, the everything that apple said was likely the problem turned out to be working fine.. Everything systematicly was disconected or changed and the problem still is here. I will be trying a true fresh install of Motion tomarrow (true=type uninstall on the apple support page to get instructions). After I will check again... Maybe I just got a bum G5. I just received a G5 dual2.5 with 2.5gig ram and Production Suite. So I think I followed their rules... they just don't seem to concerned about us who are having problems with their product. (this migtht be the new apple, get ready) oh yeh! and the nvidia card is still on it's way says apple... i'm using the 9600 right now.

I did read a few articles saying there was a performance improvement with Motion and the Radeon 9800 card, vs. the 9600, but not that it was critical to Motion's operation. One good article was here on LAFCPUG.

After a lot of playing around, I am finding that if I reboot my system and start Motion from the get go I can get a lot done without crash. If I close FCP and open Motion, it will usually crash before I can even play the sequence.

I spoke with Tech support and after over an hour of clearing pref and reset RAM etc, he suggested I take it into the shop. I tend to get anxious when I hear "I've never heard of THAT problem before".

t

I did exactly what apple has said to do... I have done their long uninstall proceedure and then have reinstalled motion.

Opened motion, and as soon as I did the drag/drop to a layer it crashed. I can make it crash as well as it crashing on its own.

The next step I will take is to 0000 my drive and take the time to fresh install the OS X and then just the Production Suite... I will then check the stability.

I can't believe this. All morning I couldn't get it to crash. I dropped in six sizeable clips into a template. I took it into the Apple store and still couldn't get it to crash. I brought it back home, started Motion and WHAM off the bat. A stupid spinning color wheel.

Isn't there some method for troubleshooting this program? HELP!

(sorry for the rant)
td

...just a silly question...did you use a different monitor in the Apple store?

Yes, everything was different except the box.

I was playing with it last night and was able to work for a long time. This AM it was whacked.

I'm curious why there are no tools for troubleshooting. What does the color wheel signify if anything? During playback, the timeline will just freeze and it's spinning wheel time.

t

""I'm curious why there are no tools for troubleshooting. What does the color wheel signify if anything?""

There are tools to troubleshoot the hardware and even one to look at the software crash. Open Applications>Utilities>Apple System Profiler and then click on the Logs tab. It may be of some help in a software situation.

The spinning lollipop is telling you that some operation has not completed when the operating system tries to do something. This can also be caused by software issues.

<<< Yes, everything was different except the box. >>>

...doesn't that tell you something? Are you using Firewire drives or any other external peripherals?

If the box worked at the Apple Store (without all your stuff attached to it), sounds to me like you have a compatibilty issue outside your box (common sense would suggest).

Plug them back in one at a time, repair permissions, and run the software (after each peripheral is attached) and yee shall find said issue.

..."spinning lollipop"?

LOL - I haven't heard that yet...it's always been the "Spinning Beachball Of Death" to me.

td,

I recomend the testing that Joe has laid out... however keep in mind that there may be several other factors involved including a problem with the program itself. I did very much the same thing that Joe has recomended and i'm now at the point of having to do a complete 0'ing of the hard drive and a complete new install of OS X and then Studio Suite... in fact those will be the only sofware items that I install, well of course the updates. I will then test the system again. machine is: dual 2.5 with 2.5gig ram, 9600 ati (still waiting for the nvidia6800), and a 23" apple lcd (new).

For some of us this has been a real bummer... Investing in their best products hardware and software, and having too many issues with our tools of the trade.

One other note: All other programs have been stable on my mac. Today for the 1st time however, I opened a word document using Word for Mac, I then selected TOOLS + LABLES + PRINT button to do a imediate print... PROGRAM QUIT... hmmm. If you choose OK instead of print, and then choose the print comand in the tool bar, it is then OK. Who knows may be it's a Bill Gates thing... I will post after I have completed my clean install without any other programs... then I will add them one at a time, and then I will add any other hard ware one at a time... and then I expect a check from apple after doing all of this work for them.

ha ha ha... allways look on the bright side of life!

-rach

There are no external peripherals on my system except the keyboard, mouse, monitor.

There have been times at home where it worked for a long time.

:shrug:

td

I am using a G5 with the Dual 2.5 GB Processors, 4 GB Ram, and the NVIDIA Card.

MOTION crashes on me frequently, and I can't seem to solve the problem. It usually crashes when I am trying to render a preview, or Exporting a clip.

It has been an extremely frustrating experience.

i have a similar configuration (Dual 2.5 4GB ram Nvidia 6800+production suite) running motion after i got the machine out the box actually let the whole machine crash, artifacts all over the screen and a distorted "hold power button to...multilingual" -screenthingie.

i found out that after a full install of the system and NOT updating to 10.3.6 stops my box from completely dying on me.

i still have motion crashing on me, and after running maya the motion gui won't show up till i reboot my box.

i guess i have to blame it on the 1.0 bleeding edge technology

- paul

Not that this will be of much help, but...as someone who has experienced this problem (crashing during export or rendering,) I found at least a small bit of relief. If you're creating a motion project for Final Cut, you can import the file into Final Cut, and drag it into the sequence. SAVE. Begin rendering the file. Cancel the render at 50%. SAVE. Rinse and Repeat until the whole thing is rendered. Final Cut will save the progress of the render even if you cancel before it's completed. It's not much of a help, but it's something. If nothing else, I'm learning patience Also, as a side note, I was getting constant crashing when I tried to render the "defocus" filter, but the gaussian blur was much more stable.

Sounds like you 've got crappy memory