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FCP6 randomly blacks out when outputting to Firewire
I have FCP6.02 running on two G4 Quicksilver Dual 1.25 Ghz’s with upgraded ATI Radeon 9800 video cards. The only difference between the two is the first one has a Sony DSR-20 DVCAM deck hooked up to it and the second one has a DSR-1800. Both of these machines are doing Standard-Def DV-codec via Firewire *only*.
When playing back on the second machine, the firewire video output seems to go black randomly seems to black out for half a second or so at a time. I am narrowing to the firewire connection because the playback continues fine in the Canvas window on the Mac monitor during these black spots.
I saw some other people had trouble with decks and drives cooperating, in terms of the devices showing up when they were both plugged in, but nothing with this specific symptom.
Any ideas?
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5 Replies
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Try resetting the PMU button on that cranky mac… it’s on the motherboard. You need to disconnect power from it completely, open it up, and it’s a small round button in a square silver (usually) housing. Near the battery on that machine I think. It’s plainly labeled PMU.
Just push the button with a pencil eraser (no shocks that way), wait 30 seconds, then restart the system. I’ve seen it fix a LOT of firewire problems, and will not hurt your machine in anyway. It resets the PRAM, and all of the power management system wide to factory spec… If this fails, try another FW cable too.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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Hey awesome tip! I am going to try that today..
Come to think of it, when booting this Mac I will often get an error message saying that the date is wrong. Think both these issues could be PMU/battery related? Or just coincidence.
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Sure sounds that way to me… might also need a new battery for it?
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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OK I reset the PMU and I replaced the battery. Still getting a message saying the clock is mis-set upon bootup, and still getting black flashes on Firewire out during playback.
Any other thoughts?
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I”d think if you set the clock, or tell the date/time control panel to set it’s time from Apple, that error message will go away.
BUT the FW problem (not related don’t think) needs looking into hardware wise if the PMU didn’t fix it. It could be a problem with your logic board where the FW bus lives… new boards aren’t inexpensive, but you can buy a FW card and add a new bus that way for around $100 bucks… I like the board from SIIG for this.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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