G5 freezing! Tried everything!

[David Fortin]

I just upgraded, installing Tiger 10.4.5 onto a new HD on my dual 2.5 G5. I also upgraded to FCP 5.0.4. (I have Panther and FCP4.5 on the old HD, just in case. This way I can always boot on that HD and go back and edit on an application that hasn’t given me any problems)

Prior to the upgrade I can’t remember my G5 every freezing. Now it happens quite often when I try to open FCP. And sometimes when I’m trying to open a project. Not usually when I’m editing. But I think it may have happened once since the upgrade.

The only thing that seems to work for me is to Repair Permissions on my boot drive BEFORE I open FCP. Everytime I Repair Permissions, FCP starts up and I can then edit.

Don’t know if this will help you, but that’s what I’m doing.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.4.5}
4.5 GB RAM
FCP 5.0.4
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[Jonathan Palmer]

Thanks- It’s just disapointing to have a rock solid system go south with no explaination.
JP

[Annaël Beauchemin]

Do you have third party devices plugged in your computer (USB, FW, PCI-X) ? If so, remove them. You may have a device with a old driver. If you have a SATA PCI (or PCI-X) card, I would verify on the company website if it’s compatible with 10.4.5 and download their latest driver.

[Zander]

from experiences with computers and drives and programs, you gotta start from scratch especially with macs, when u install new drivers, start from scratch, go back and install you prgrams and thenall your cards and device drivers, don’t just expect them to all work, make it as if your buying a brand new system adn u just bought all your cards, plugins etc. and ya it sucks but its kinda what needs to happen

Aaron Zander-Student edditor
If it’s out there and it does somethign to something,
teach me how to use it
Powerbook g4 1.5 GHz (it might not be big, but i can take it on set
fcp 5, ae 6.5pro adobe cs2

[Jonathan Palmer]

YA, I did a fresh install 2x- no dice
JP

[Bret Williams]

It’s the sleep mode probably. Since upgrading to tiger I was having the same issues witih my old dual G4. I rebuilt the system twice before I realized it was mostly crashing or freezing or just acting plain wacky after waking up. I disabled sleep all together (except screen saver) and it hasn’t acted the slightest bit wacky in months.

Maybe just a driver problem, but it works.

[David Bogie]

> from experiences with computers and drives and programs, you gotta start from scratch especially with macs, when u install new drivers, start from scratch, go back and install you prgrams and thenall your cards and device drivers, don’t just expect them to all work, make it as if your buying a brand new system adn u just bought all your cards, plugins etc. and ya it sucks but its kinda what needs to happen< This start from scratch advice gets casually tossed around often but it is not necessary; it's certainly not efficient. It guarantees nothing. I have installed all OS10 releases with simple upgrades, I've never doe a scorched earth erase and install. I have replaced or updated all of my versions of FCP with simple upgrades, I've never done an erase and reinstall. There are subtle differences between Panther and TIger. the sleep issue is probably what's causing the main problems. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Hector Silva]

I know that you’ve mostly narrowed it down to sleep issues (after all these years, why do Windows and Mac computers continue to have sleep issues?), and turning off sleep is a good thing to do for all editing systems.

Most people never talk about power when they have system issues. Though this may not apply specifically to your problem I think it’s good to point out that a number of people have crashes due to dirty/variable electricity. Having your system running through a decent UPS will solve that issue, plus it gives you the added bonus of allowing you to save your last bit of masterful work 15 minutes after the power goes out.