OSX Error Crashes FCP

[Don Greening]

Without being there looking over your shoulder I’ll have to make an educated guess. The first thing I’d do is trash the FCP preference files. If you don’t know how to do this then go here:

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

Google the free program “FCP Rescue”. it’s a wonderful little program that will do the trashing preferences job for you. Most everybody uses it.

Secondly, buy the program “Disk Warrior” and run that to make sure all your directories are in top shape. Your FCP problems may be related to your projects losing their association with some media or render files, etc.

Thirdly, Google the system maintenance program called “Cocktail” which does things like getting rid of bloated cache and log files within OS X. Also important for keeping your Mac in top shape. There is more than one system maintenance program out there. Cocktail is just the one I happen to use and it works fine for me. It’s also a freebie. The Mac is Unix based which was originally designed to run 24 7. System maintenance is programmed into the OS and is designed to run in the wee hours of the morning when no one’s using the machine. Trouble is, most people shut their Macs off at night so this little task never gets done. Hence the reason for programs like Cocktail.

Oh, and make sure you use Disk Utility from time to time for repairing the permisions on your startup drive. If you find a lot of corrections listed in the staus window during the permissions repair, run it a second time. Do the permissions thing right after trashing FCP preferences and before using Disk Warrior. Repairing permissions is done on just the startup drive.

All the things mentioned above should be part of an ongoing preventive maintenance routine to avoid what just happened to you.

– Don

“Please take a moment to fill out your profile, including your computer system and relevant software. Help us help you.”

[John Couture]

Thank you so much for the helpful input. I do some of those housekeeping things, but not all. I will certainly try them out.

Best,

John Couture

[Don Greening]

Let me know how you make out, John.

– Don

“Please take a moment to fill out your profile, including your computer system and relevant software. Help us help you.”

[John Couture]

Don,

Thanks again for you input. I appreciate it. Here’s a quick update:

I’ve installed and ran FCP Rescue and Cocktail, and after trashing preferences, I ran Disk Utility twice (I watched as it ran and it appears that some permissions did need fixing). I have Disk Warrior at my office and I’ll bring that home and try that as well. For now, still no dice and now FCP is really getting buggy on a more consistent basis.

You did mention about projects losing their associations being a possible problem and I’m wondering if that could be the case. I receently switched from editing at work to home and, consequently, I restructured and copied over many of my work files to my home computer (like FCP, Motion, DVD Studio projects and sound effects). Even though these files were unchanged, quite a few of them needed to be re-rendered or relinked when I used elements of the projects on my home computer for the first time. But I did edit work without problems with the new setup for a couple of weeks, so I wasn’t thinking that was an issue. However, do you think the computer became buggy when processing all the offline files?

Finally, if I run Disk Warrior and still encounter issues, do I try other options, move to a FCP reinstall or full OSX re-install?

Best,

John Couture

[Don Greening]

[johnny5] “Finally, if I run Disk Warrior and still encounter issues, do I try other options, move to a FCP reinstall or full OSX re-install?”

Try Disk Warrior first and see if that makes a difference. Perhaps your thoughts about re-installing FCP or the OS might be a bit premature at this point. Disk Warrior was designed to fix directories that get corrputed with use. Run it from the install CD so you can use it on the startup drive first and then on your media drive(s). Remember that putting video media on your startup drive is a no-no because of the host of problems that can occur when running FCP. But then, you already knew that. Just trying to cover all the bases here. To keep your Mac in top shape for running the pro apps it might be worthwhile for you to download and read the article by Jerry Hofmann in the first Creative Cow online magazine. He goes into great detail about configuring and mantaining a Mac/FCP system. Novice and experienced users can benefit from this article.

I’ll continue to watch this thread for any more posts.

– Don

“Please take a moment to fill out your profile, including your computer system and relevant software. Help us help you.”

[John Couture]

Don,

I got Disk Warrior and tried to boot it from the CD, but on restart my computer just stalled on the grey apple screen during startup. The computer’s processor would kick in and gradually get louder as the computer rebooted, then as it stalled it basically continued to whirr loudly. The instructions say booting from the Disk Warrior CD can take 5-15 minutes, but I tried it twice and after waiting 45 minutes and 20 minutes with no startup, I figured something is wrong.

Next steps? Should I run Disk Warrior from my normal startup drive, or does that make sense if the problem is with my startup drive? Oh, and regarding your comment about video media: all my video media is on a separate drive than my startup drive with my current setup. I have a separate, internal hard drive where I store all my projects, video files, audio files, etc. (although I know from Hofmann’s article you recommended that I now should store my projects somewhere else). I also will integrate his advice into my system setup after I get this figured out.

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.

John Couture

[John Couture]

Don,

I actually tried to run Disk Warrior from the startup drive so I could at least check out my media drive (where I store all my FCP files). The initial report said I had problems with something like 28% of my files, then after it tried to rebuild the files, Disk Warrior unexpectedly crashed. Before it crashed, it said it encountered some problems with the startup disk and recommended rebooting from the Disk Warrior CD (which still isn’t working).

Not sure if this helps at all, but I recently installed an extra 4 gigs of RAM and the drive I’m using to store my media. I wasn’t thinking these were the problem though since the computer said it was an OSX failure before and I figured that had something to do with my startup drive (but that’s just a guess).

I got both the hard drive and RAM from Microcenter and doublechecked with their Mac people to make sure it was OK. The RAM is PS3200U-30330 and the hard drive is a serial ATA drive, 7200 RPM.

Anyhow, this is just a mess now, so I appreciate your advice.

Best,

John

[Don Greening]

Hi John,

Sounds like things are going downhill fast, huh? OK, try booting up from your OSX Installation DVD. If that works then run Disc Utility from the disc, not from your hard drive. See if that finds anything. I’m a bit concerned that you couldn’t boot up from the Disk Warrior CD which makes me think it might be a hardware thing. Right now it’s just a process of elimination. If you can’t boot up from the OSX Install disc then pull the new RAM out and try again. Basically you want to have everything back the way it was before the Mac started screwing up. Sometimes Macs don’t like mixing RAM from different manufacturers and it has a big hissy fit. If you pull the RAM out and it still won’t behave (startup from the OSX Install disc) then you’ll have to take your machine in and have a hardware test done.

Satrting up from the Disk Warrior CD by holding down the “C” key should only take 4-5 minutes. If you can’t do that or boot from the OSX install DVD then you wouldn’t be able to re-install the OS or anything else for that matter. Hence the suggestion to have a hardware test done. I don’t want to scare you premeturely but I recently had to have the main PC board replaced under warranty in my 2.7 G5. First time I ever had a hardware problem in all the Macs I’ve owned, and that’s going back to the early 90’s.

Keep me posted.

– Don

“Please take a moment to fill out your profile, including your computer system and relevant software. Help us help you.”

[John Couture]

Don,

Yikes! That certainly does sound scary, but I’ll take it one step at a time as you suggesed and eliminate possible culprits.

Many thanks. I’ll give you a report after I’ve gone through all this.

Best,

John

[Rj Miles]

May I just offer… anytime you have the fans run wild on the G5, it’s usually points to a hardware issue.

On my 2.0ghz DP G5, I needed to have both processor replaced and calibrated to solve my problems.

If you can get a hold of the service tech hardware test DVD, it will usually tell you what hardware is at fault.

I ended up buying the Apple Tech Service Training Program so I could have my own copy of the test DVD.

Good luck

RJ
…

PS… remember, if your rig is still under warranty, you can ask Apple to send a sevice tech to your home or business.