System slowing down, dropping frames, FCP and Compressor occasionally crash at DVinfo.net

Jase Tanner · August 18th, 2010, 07:06 PM

This problem has been slowly developing over time and despite many attempts at fixing it took a real turn for the worst yesterday.

I've trashed preferences, fixed permissions, run Onyx, Disk Warrior, defragmented the boot drive, and reinstalled Snow Leopard. The problem is system wide though. While of course FCS suffers the most, all other applications are slowing down as well. Yesterday I had an out of memory message when I tried to open a 3rd sequence. Closing the other 2 didn't help. I had to reboot. I checked to make sure the 2nd ram module was still recognized and it was.

I'm thinking of cloning the drive, wiping it and reinstalling everything fresh.

I'm running FCS 3 on 10.6.3 on a MBP 2.33, 2 gigs of ram

Any advice on alternatives etc would be greatly appreciated and of course I'm concerned its a hardware issue, although it did pass a Smart Utility test.

Thanks

John Meeks · August 24th, 2010, 03:45 PM

You could check what's hogging the memory with top or something...

Nigel Barker · August 25th, 2010, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jase Tanner

I'm running FCS 3 on 10.6.3 on a MBP 2.33, 2 gigs of ram

I really wouldn't want to run FCP in just 2GB. I really wouldn't want to run Snow Leopard at all in less than 4GB RAM. It will cost you less than $90 to purchase a 4GB upgrade from Crucial.

Robert Lane · August 29th, 2010, 06:24 AM

Based on all the software stuff you've tried it's most likely you're experiencing a slow-death hardware failure; either the main HDD, mainboard, CPU or something is about to totally give out.

Get it into an Apple Genius Bar and let them diagnose it - but don't wait before it's too late.

William Hohauser · August 30th, 2010, 12:19 PM

A friend had a problem sort of like this on a G5 tower but he managed through it until eventually the monitors stopped working. I thought it was a major hardware failure on the motherboard but the local Apple tech diagnosed that a RAM module had been going bad. A simple fix (and free RAM replacement under warranty) got the computer back up and running smoother than before. I have seen what bad RAM can do on other Macs but this was the first time I saw the monitors directly affected. One Mac with bad RAM ran fine until somebody would launch Photoshop and then the whole computer would crash. FCP didn't have the problem. Another Mac only had problems with Apple software updates, the applications always ran fine. Removing the bad RAM solved the software update problem. That was a little strange.

August 18th, 2010, 07:06 PM	#1
Jase Tanner Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 346	System slowing down, dropping frames, FCP and Compressor occasionally crash This problem has been slowly developing over time and despite many attempts at fixing it took a real turn for the worst yesterday. I've trashed preferences, fixed permissions, run Onyx, Disk Warrior, defragmented the boot drive, and reinstalled Snow Leopard. The problem is system wide though. While of course FCS suffers the most, all other applications are slowing down as well. Yesterday I had an out of memory message when I tried to open a 3rd sequence. Closing the other 2 didn't help. I had to reboot. I checked to make sure the 2nd ram module was still recognized and it was. I'm thinking of cloning the drive, wiping it and reinstalling everything fresh. I'm running FCS 3 on 10.6.3 on a MBP 2.33, 2 gigs of ram Any advice on alternatives etc would be greatly appreciated and of course I'm concerned its a hardware issue, although it did pass a Smart Utility test. Thanks

August 30th, 2010, 12:19 PM	#5
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	A friend had a problem sort of like this on a G5 tower but he managed through it until eventually the monitors stopped working. I thought it was a major hardware failure on the motherboard but the local Apple tech diagnosed that a RAM module had been going bad. A simple fix (and free RAM replacement under warranty) got the computer back up and running smoother than before. I have seen what bad RAM can do on other Macs but this was the first time I saw the monitors directly affected. One Mac with bad RAM ran fine until somebody would launch Photoshop and then the whole computer would crash. FCP didn't have the problem. Another Mac only had problems with Apple software updates, the applications always ran fine. Removing the bad RAM solved the software update problem. That was a little strange. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

August 24th, 2010, 03:45 PM	#2
John Meeks Regular Crew Join Date: May 2010 Location: Middletown, NY, USA Posts: 106	You could check what's hogging the memory with top or something...

August 29th, 2010, 06:24 AM	#4
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,825 Images: 15	Based on all the software stuff you've tried it's most likely you're experiencing a slow-death hardware failure; either the main HDD, mainboard, CPU or something is about to totally give out. Get it into an Apple Genius Bar and let them diagnose it - but don't wait before it's too late.