LHe/MacPro Conflict

[Gary Adcock]

[Scott Skaja] “Has anyone else experienced this?
Does anyone have a solution?
“

Wow

how would we know? no specs, no software versions, and what the hack is a “macpro3”

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

Inside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php

[Scott Skaja]

Dear Mr. Etiquette,

From your response, I’ll take it you haven’t experienced this or else you’d know what I’m talking about.

As for your “questions”, the model is a “MacPro 3,1″… look it up in your System Profiler. As for the rest, it’s a Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 3 GHz Processing, 2 processors, 8 cores, 6GB memory. I was running the latest LHe software driver (6.0.2).

If you have something constructive to add to this thread I’d love to hear it.

Scott Skaja
edit/design/animation
http://www.scottskaja.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

Are you sure your card is in the right slot and what else do you have in your PCIe slots?

And Gary is right, os, qt and all software versions are helpful.

Jeremy

[Gary Adcock]

[Scott Skaja] “From your response, I’ll take it you haven’t experienced this or else you’d know what I’m talking about. “

That would be a incorrect assumption on your behalf.

but something going wrong with your mouse has absolutely nothing to do with a Kona card. It has more to do with the information that you so graciously ignored while insulting me on, say what OS, QT, or that fact that you have possibley loaded an incorrect version of the drivers for your software / hardware combo.

and I can assure you that the “apple store” will ALWAYS tell you to take out the card, they do not sell them so they must always be to blame. Your LHE card is certified by Apple to work with the MacPro you have.

” it’s a Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 3 GHz Processing, 2 processors, 8 cores, “

that would be an OctoCore by the way,

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

Inside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php

[Scott Skaja]

I’ve confirmed with Apple and my technician that slot 3 is where the LHe card should be. I’m running OS 10.5.6 and QuickTime Pro 7.6. Since I originally posted this morning, I did recently hear back from AJA. There response was disappointing, to say the least. They replied:

“We did not recommend enabling any OSX sleep functions. The problem is OSX does not restore the PCIe bus properly thus causing the freezing problem. Sleeping storage could also cause stability issues. The only safe option is the screen saver. Unfortunately this is out of our control. Let us know if you have more questions.

Best regards
AJA Video Technical Support”

I read the supplied documentation thoroughly and it did not mention disabling the sleep function. To me AJA is saying that they “sort of tried to work this out with Apple, guess the customer is on their own”. I come from a background where customer service and product integrity are foundations to a stellar business reputation. I am starting to feel like I’m alone in this thinking.

Scott Skaja
edit/design/animation
http://www.scottskaja.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

Hey Scott. Sorry for your troubles.

Sounds like AJA gave you a solid answer. I never sleep my machines and ever have, even before I had AJA cards. Sleep has been an issue with Macs and PCI cards. If AJA says it’s out of their control, I would believe them. If there was something they could do about it, they would. I recommend calling Apple and complaining to them as it is obviously a hardware issue with the Mac and PCI cards.

Shut down at the end of the day and you will be fine and your problems will go away.

Jeremy

[Scott Skaja]

Thank you for the advice. I apologize for my less than professional responses to this matter, my frustration got the best of me. I will follow-up with Apple.

Scott Skaja
edit/design/animation
http://www.scottskaja.com

[Gary Adcock]

Scott.

the sleep function is not supported in all instances, the most common of those being the higher end tools being used for “professional” applications. Video Cards and High-end storage HBA’s being the most common tools that do not allow access to sleep due to a myriad of issues relating to what really happens when certain devices wake up and whether the OS will acknowledge them or forget they were active before.
your monitor problem is just that. The OS gets out of whack when you force the computer to sleep but a device installed keeps working- it disrupts the inner workings in strange ways, and differently on every machine depending on OS, Apps and what hardware.

Sorry that the answer was not what you were looking for.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

Inside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php

[Bob Zelin]

Scott writes –
I will follow-up with Apple

Hi Scott, this is Bob Zelin, nice to meet you. I am going to explain what your problem is. You know nothing about this professional product (the AJA Kona LHe), and instead of hiring a professional VALUE ADDED RESELLER to put this system together for you, you decided to mail order this product from the cheapest place possible, and install it yourself, without having any background on installing professional video products. Instead, you brought it to the MORONS who work at the Genius Bar at the Apple Stores, who have NEVER EVER seen any third party professional video card that is manufactured by AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox or MOTU. ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS would develop “problems” if they were not properly installed in your system. Every professional editing system, from the original AVID Media Composer and EMC have specified to turn off all sleep functions when operating their products. If you are new to this industry, I do not expect you to know this, but if you are new to this industry, you DO NOT go to the APPLE store, or try it yourself. If you do, you are destined for failure.

I am not defending AJA here (which is an excellent company). If you had purchased products from Blackmagic, Matrox, or MOTU, you would have experienced the same issues. Let me assure you, that for the rest of your professional career, in your future purchases of any professional video cards, large disk drive arrays, etc, you will NEVER EVER EVER get accurate information from the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. If you don’t believe me, go in next time, and ask them about Apple XSAN, or the Apple/Promise VTrak drive array. See what kind of blank look you get on their faces.

This is the PROFESSIONAL video business, and it requires knowlege and background. There is plenty that all of us don’t know – these products do not just “plug in and work”, like a Firewire 400 drive.

Bob Zelin
Mr. Etiquette to you

[Scott Skaja]

Hi Bob,

I did hire a reseller to install this. They are the ones that contacted AJA for me and they have guided me through the steps to find a resolution to this problem. When the issue first arose, the techs at Apple were the ones to inform me that the Kona card was causing the issue. Through help from the reseller, AJA, Apple and this forum we figured it out. I am a 25 year veteran in post-production and I think I might have learned quite a bit in that time. But as you well know, things change at a rapid pace now, which is why there are so many forums out there. I feel there is always room to learn new things, like why is my computer having an issue. I agree that the “Genuis” bar is not the be all to end all, but at least it’s a place to start. I am the sole employee of my business and make a respectable living at post-production and animation, but I cannot afford to sign a contract with my local video pro tech service company.

As for my outburst at Gary yesterday, I apologize. We all have bad days, Gary caught me at a bad moment. I am currently 3 days behind schedule on my current project and wasn’t in the mood to have tech issues or to be talked down to.

From one professional to another, thank you all for the help.

Scott Skaja
edit/design/animation
http://www.scottskaja.com