FCP fine then suddenly won’t open

[Don Greening]

Dave,

Try trashing the FCP pref files. It could also be a corrupt project file but trash the pref files first and report back at your convenience. It’s easy to do and won’t hurt a thing.

Here’s how to do it right:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

– Don

[David Johnson]

[https://www.kenstone.net]
Been there, done that the first time this happened…that time, after several days of restarting, trashing prefs, etc., it eventually opened, but it’s now obvious the problem wasn’t really resolved…FCP apparently just felt like working again for a while. Doubt it’s a corrupt project problem since it happened both when trying to open FCP fresh to start a new project and when trying to open various existing projects that worked fine before all the way through mastering.

[Don Greening]

Okay. Have you done the “repair permissions” thing? Do you have a copy of DiskWarrior and have you run it to make sure all your directories are in good shape?

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/care_feeding_panther.html

Have you made sure that FCP is communicating properly with your firewire camera/deck?

– Don

[David Johnson]

I’m in a corporate media department and we have a very good Mac Tech who has done those things and many others to ensure the G5 itself stays in stellar condition, but his expertise tapers off when it comes to specific production software like FCP. Even so, he is very good at checking software-specific documentation, etc. to make sure he doesn’t do anything that’ll effect the software and i’m always right there with him as he works on our Macs (we have about a dozen, although only one FCP).

[Don Greening]

Okay I’m out of ideas and am not familiar enough with the paculiarities if your AJA capture card and related peripherals, including the X Serve RAID. I will bow out now and you’ll have to wait for someone else more experienced with your particular setup. Wild guess: Software driver for the AJA card needs an update/re-install? That’s about it.

– Don

[David Johnson]

No prob…I very much appreciate you trying to help. Based on this and other experiences in a relatively short time period, it seems to me that FCP is just very buggy software of the “pro-sumer” type. That’s what we get for trying to save a buck on unproven tools, rather than going with tried and true “pro” gear such as Avid or the like. I mean no offense to the dedicated FCP users who will likely respond to that comment with rage, but I can only base my opinion on my experiences and am simply not the type to hold my words for fear of offending.

[Don Greening]

Hi Dave,

Yup, you’ll probably get a few comments. For me FCP has been rock solid and never crashes and has nerver had any startup problems, and I use it a lot for my business.

As far as your particular problem: all I know is that whenever FCP starts up it always tries to establish communications with the various peripherals assigned to it by the user preferences, whether it be external drives or capture cards, etc. When it can’t establish it will seize up, which leads me to believe that this is something for you to troubleshoot. You might try unplugging and reconnecting things to make sure everything is solid.

Good luck.

– Don

[David Johnson]

[Yup, you’ll probably get a few comments.]
That’s fine…from the many hours I’ve spent on this and other forums (including Apple’s), It’s very clear to me that I’m not the only one experiencing problems with FCP that are beyond the norm with NLEs.
The only peripherals, so to speak, are the AJA I/O and X-Serve RAID, which are both connected and fucntioning properly.

[Steven Gonzales]

While reading all the forums, I’m sure you’ve seen postings that the most stable combination for Final Cut Pro stated by most people is Mac OS 10.3.8 and the latest Quicktime 6 (not 7) version.

It probably doesn’t do you any good to take your specific problem and interpret that as a blanket condemnation of specific software, and then post to a forum dedicated to that software.

[David Johnson]

Point taken. It just seems to me that since the software and O/S are coming from the same place (unlike most NLEs), they should play nicely together without all kinds of workarounds…current versions, that is. My comments weren’t intended as a blanket condemnation of the software…I know many out there are having better luck with it than I. Rather, they’re simple observations based not only on my current problem, but also previous problems in a relatively short time period (on a system that is VERY well maintained by a VERY qualified Mac Tech), as well as the numerous similar posts I’ve read on this and other forums (including Apple’s). Even so, I shouldn’t have let my obvious frustration make it’s way into my attempts to find a solution…I just want to be able to get some work done!