FCP keeps crashing

Harry Bromley-Davenport · September 22nd, 2008, 05:28 PM

By the way, folks, I discovered about a week ago that I had my Blackmagic card in the wrong slot on the Mac - it should be in the top (fastest) slot.

That has improved the crashing about 50%, but the issue is by no means cured. The latest Pro Apps and QT which came out a couple of days ago has helped somewhat too.

I never said that I wasn't an idiot.

Harry.

John Godwin · September 22nd, 2008, 05:30 PM

I would hope it would have to be a project with several times the material and much more complex timelines. I did just try copying the timeline and turning it into Pro Res instead of xdcam, to see if that helped the render issue, but that crashes, too.

Harry: I'll mention that to my systems guy, since he built the system.

Thanks.

Craig Seeman · September 22nd, 2008, 05:35 PM

Check for bad RAM also. Pull the RAM (or have your system person do it) and reboot. Things would certainly get sluggish but if the crashes stop that could be it.

John Godwin · September 22nd, 2008, 05:40 PM

That was the first thing he tried a couple of weeks ago when he was here. I'm thinking maybe we should try it againn, maybe with a different brand of RAM.

John Godwin · September 23rd, 2008, 08:32 AM

Just as a reality check, I took the project and the material (on a g-raid) over to my Macbook Pro, again. All the bins open fine without locking up and it renders without problems ... so far. Evidently it is some specific combination of hardware and software on the Mac Pro.

John Godwin · September 24th, 2008, 08:42 AM

I started the xdcam transfer application outside of Final Cut and got the attached screen, warning that the MPEG IMX Codecs are need by xdcam transfer and evidently are missing. Now, FCP has had a full reinstall during all this and so have the xdcam utilities.

Does anyone know:
How to check if these are installed somewhere?
If not, do I need to install them?
Where to get and install them?
If this actually might be the source of these crashing problems?

I hope.

Matt Slocum · October 13th, 2008, 03:23 PM

I keep having the same problem with XDCAM HD. It seems to be a codec problem from sony on the MacPro.
There are some work arounds posted at Random crashing with XDCAM HD : Apple Final Cut Pro

John Godwin · October 19th, 2008, 01:30 PM

Matt,

There was a gentleman who has similar issues that replied earlier in this thread. He doesn't use xdcam. I do think there are some issues with xdcam but I don't think that's the main issue.

My vendor completely reinstalled everything from the operating system on about a week ago. It did help with the problems, but it didn't fix them, merely cut down on the occurences. I'm really hoping Apple issues a patch that resolves this.

And, again, NONE of this happens on the Macbook pro laptop.

John Godwin · January 13th, 2009, 11:57 AM

Further Update:

Finally, today, my vendor and I removed the Kona 3 card from the system, and uninstalled the software. No crashing. Put the card back in, crashes.

Tomorrow we're trying a different Kona 3 card.

Georg Mueller · April 2nd, 2009, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Godwin

Further Update:

Finally, today, my vendor and I removed the Kona 3 card from the system, and uninstalled the software. No crashing. Put the card back in, crashes.

Tomorrow we're trying a different Kona 3 card.

John, I am having the same problem with my Blackmagic multibridge pro. I would be interested if you and your vendor finally solved the problem. I am now using media manager to convert entire projects to prorez. Hope this will be stable, even though I have had mixed success with this codec.

John Godwin · April 2nd, 2009, 07:26 PM

Georg,

What finally seemed to do the trick was moving the Kona card into slot 3 instead of slot 4. There was also a software upgrade/update with the Kona, but I *think* moving it to the other slot was the main factor... I know on my previous systems, on PCs, slot/card order could be a massive big deal.

Again, none of this ever happened/happens on 2 mac book pros. Only on the mac pro with the Kona card.

It took me six months of complaining to the systems integrator before they would really check out the hardware. They kept saying it was a software issue. I come from editing with Liquid (at the high end of that spectrum) on PCs, and 75% of the problems I had were hardware issues.

Hope this helps in some way ....

John Godwin · July 19th, 2009, 12:39 PM

Just to wrap this up - it turned out there was apparently a bad drive in my RAID set. I thought my vendor had checked it, and being new to mac I didn't even know how to check it. I did ask that all the hardware be checked out, but evidently that never fully happened.

The first full replacement RAID worked for a week and then became intermittent - I was shipped a new RAID enclosure, put in the drives, and that one has been working ever since.

At this point I don't know if the Kona 3 card really had anything to do with this at all, as everything seems to be humming along nicely now that the RAID is functional.

I do wish the vendor had been a bit more diligent about checking out the hardware, instead of assuming operator error or software issues. It would have saved me months of problems. But I hope someone else benefits from this experience.

Best,
John

September 22nd, 2008, 05:30 PM	#32
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	I would hope it would have to be a project with several times the material and much more complex timelines. I did just try copying the timeline and turning it into Pro Res instead of xdcam, to see if that helped the render issue, but that crashes, too. Harry: I'll mention that to my systems guy, since he built the system. Thanks. Last edited by John Godwin; September 22nd, 2008 at 05:32 PM. Reason: add info

September 24th, 2008, 08:42 AM	#36
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	I started the xdcam transfer application outside of Final Cut and got the attached screen, warning that the MPEG IMX Codecs are need by xdcam transfer and evidently are missing. Now, FCP has had a full reinstall during all this and so have the xdcam utilities. Does anyone know: How to check if these are installed somewhere? If not, do I need to install them? Where to get and install them? If this actually might be the source of these crashing problems? I hope. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by John Godwin; September 24th, 2008 at 08:44 AM. Reason: screen didn't attach

October 13th, 2008, 03:23 PM	#37
Matt Slocum Tourist Join Date: May 2008 Location: Greenville, SC Posts: 1	blame XDCAM I keep having the same problem with XDCAM HD. It seems to be a codec problem from sony on the MacPro. There are some work arounds posted at Random crashing with XDCAM HD : Apple Final Cut Pro

October 19th, 2008, 01:30 PM	#38
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	Matt, There was a gentleman who has similar issues that replied earlier in this thread. He doesn't use xdcam. I do think there are some issues with xdcam but I don't think that's the main issue. My vendor completely reinstalled everything from the operating system on about a week ago. It did help with the problems, but it didn't fix them, merely cut down on the occurences. I'm really hoping Apple issues a patch that resolves this. And, again, NONE of this happens on the Macbook pro laptop. Last edited by John Godwin; October 19th, 2008 at 05:33 PM. Reason: spellinng

April 2nd, 2009, 07:26 PM	#41
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	Georg, What finally seemed to do the trick was moving the Kona card into slot 3 instead of slot 4. There was also a software upgrade/update with the Kona, but I think moving it to the other slot was the main factor... I know on my previous systems, on PCs, slot/card order could be a massive big deal. Again, none of this ever happened/happens on 2 mac book pros. Only on the mac pro with the Kona card. It took me six months of complaining to the systems integrator before they would really check out the hardware. They kept saying it was a software issue. I come from editing with Liquid (at the high end of that spectrum) on PCs, and 75% of the problems I had were hardware issues. Hope this helps in some way .... Last edited by John Godwin; April 2nd, 2009 at 07:28 PM. Reason: clarity

September 22nd, 2008, 05:28 PM	#31
Harry Bromley-Davenport Major Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: LA CA Posts: 317	By the way, folks, I discovered about a week ago that I had my Blackmagic card in the wrong slot on the Mac - it should be in the top (fastest) slot. That has improved the crashing about 50%, but the issue is by no means cured. The latest Pro Apps and QT which came out a couple of days ago has helped somewhat too. I never said that I wasn't an idiot. Harry.

September 22nd, 2008, 05:35 PM	#33
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Check for bad RAM also. Pull the RAM (or have your system person do it) and reboot. Things would certainly get sluggish but if the crashes stop that could be it.

September 22nd, 2008, 05:40 PM	#34
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	That was the first thing he tried a couple of weeks ago when he was here. I'm thinking maybe we should try it againn, maybe with a different brand of RAM.

September 23rd, 2008, 08:32 AM	#35
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	Just as a reality check, I took the project and the material (on a g-raid) over to my Macbook Pro, again. All the bins open fine without locking up and it renders without problems ... so far. Evidently it is some specific combination of hardware and software on the Mac Pro.

January 13th, 2009, 11:57 AM	#39
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	Further Update: Finally, today, my vendor and I removed the Kona 3 card from the system, and uninstalled the software. No crashing. Put the card back in, crashes. Tomorrow we're trying a different Kona 3 card.

July 19th, 2009, 12:39 PM	#42
John Godwin Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 190	Just to wrap this up - it turned out there was apparently a bad drive in my RAID set. I thought my vendor had checked it, and being new to mac I didn't even know how to check it. I did ask that all the hardware be checked out, but evidently that never fully happened. The first full replacement RAID worked for a week and then became intermittent - I was shipped a new RAID enclosure, put in the drives, and that one has been working ever since. At this point I don't know if the Kona 3 card really had anything to do with this at all, as everything seems to be humming along nicely now that the RAID is functional. I do wish the vendor had been a bit more diligent about checking out the hardware, instead of assuming operator error or software issues. It would have saved me months of problems. But I hope someone else benefits from this experience. Best, John