FCP Canvas and Viewer show up white in fcp 7

[Eric Peltier]

here’s an other update on the white screen of death problem.
try this an see if it works on your end,
plug your monitor to the other DVI port while computer is on, restart computer and launch FCP
From reading other post about this, seems like it’s a problem with the graphic card.
it worked for me, but again it might start again.

[Bill Burke]

Playing around with FCP7 on an external firewire drive with OS and migrated files/app’s from my macpro that wont work on my Macpro dual quad core, windows show up white.
Same external drive rebooted to my macbook pro 2.33mhz and FCP7 works fine there.

So now I have a clean OS and FCP7 on my macpro internal drive with no migrated app’s/ files that works also. I can’t figure where the conflicts are.
hardware, software?
guess i wait for the update.

[Eric Peltier]

Bill
what’s your monitor set up ?
are you using 2 monitors? is one of them VGA or as a VGA to DVI adapter?
this seems to be the problem, when you’re running FCP 7 from the internal startup disk.
when booting up and launching FCP if you see your canvas and viewer white.
quit FCP, unplug the monitor that’s VGA or VGA to DVI, go to display pref and select detect display, then relaunch FCP.
hope it helps

e.

[Bill Burke]

e
you nailed it! Thanks
one monitor was dvi to VGA (samsung). Guess now I just have to wait for the update to correct that.
Thanks again was driving myself crazy.

[Eric Peltier]

Actually you can still use your dual monitor setup,
just make sure you launch FCP 7 with the VGA monitor unplug.
then once FCP is running, plug it back in and select detect display, should work – until they fix the bug.
e.

[Bill Burke]

yes e you are right, just cant understand why a reformatted drive with a fresh os and fcp and no migrated files or apps plays with no problem with the dvi to vga adapter. but thanks again for solving the mystery

[Chris Hofer]

I spent several hours to fix this problem. My phone call (1 hour) at Apple Support did not fix the issue.

Now my problem is fixed! The workflow:

1. System preferences “Monitors” set to 32768 colors
2. FCP started (still the same problem)
3. FCP terminated
4. System preferences “Monitors” set to 16,7 Mill colors
5. FCP started – the problem seems to be fixed

Best regards

Chris

[Stephan Caspar]

Hi,

I’ve got the same problem, white canvas and viewer on my apple cinema display. The only thing that worked for me yesterday was my opening my macbook screen and working from there, sliding the canvas and viewer across to the display (a painful way of working).

Will try all your tips and let you know how it goes. It’s not been a fun transition to snow leopard. also problems with my mobile dongle (vodafone) and a few bad crashes here and there.

[Gabor Maly]

I tried disconnecting the second monitor then relaunching FCP it did not work, still displayed the white.

Then played around with the Display setting /Color profiles, switched from one to another then back while FCP was running. The white all of a sudden changed to black.

Very weird but it works OK now!

[Hugh Walton]

I was having the same problem, but found a solution.

I work on a 15 inch MacBook Pro connected to a 23 inch Apple Cinema Display. When I disconnected my external display, restarted the computer, and opened FCP7 using only my laptop’s screen, the problem disappeared. Next, I connected my Cinema Display while my laptop was open, put the computer to sleep, and then woke it up using an external keyboard (laptop closed). When I opened FCP7 the white screen reappeared. I finally restarted my laptop (closed) while connected to my Cinema Display and the issue disappeared.

There is clearly an issue with FCP7 involving the use of external displays, but a simple restart while connected to my Cinema Display did the trick. It seems like many, if not all of you guys are using one or more external displays, which makes me suspect that the problem involves FCP7 and how it is interfacing with the computer’s graphics card. This would explain why changing the Display Settings (color profiles, number of colors, etc.) might correct the issue.

I am relieved to discover that the problem is hardware related, rather than software related. I just did a clean install of Snow Leopard and the new Final Cut Studio, so having to start all over again would have been torture.

Hugh