The final cut, she crashes. It seems to be the project's fault.

Okay, here we go - I'm an assistant / consultant / would-be day saver on this project:

I have before me a 2x3GHz Mac Pro, running 10.5.2, FCP 6.0.3, QT 7.4.5. 6GB of RAM. The only system change that has taken place in the past few weeks was when I pointed out that the RAM was installed improperly (it contains 6GB, but for a while, only 2GB were registering), but the crashes are becoming more frequent.

The project file is currently focusing on a single timeline of about 7 minutes, a promo. The file references approx. 1TB of data. The project does mix interview footage in HDCAM (ingested as DVCPRO HD 1080i60 @ 24fps, 1280 x 1080), b-roll in HDV (HDV 1080i60 @ 29.97 1440 x 1080) and what appear to be temp motion graphics (H.264 @ 29.97, 480x270 native)

The timeline that has been in use is HD 1440x1080 @ 29.97, matching the HDV, although I have also tried creating a timeline that matches the properties of the HDCAM stuff, since either way, FCP6 supposedly plays nice mixing formats, right?

All to say: FCP is crashing a lot. I can't play through the entire promo without a crash. It doesn't crash at a particular place in the promo, entirely rendered or not-rendered-at-all. Sometimes it crashes whilst rendering, but it's only pieces of a 7min whole (I read about people having trouble with the 28+min renders). Sometimes it crashes whilst idling - while I'm browsing the forums here, presumably out of spite.

I'm also running TechTool Deluxe on it, which shows that all the hardware is in good shape, except the Drive Hardware category. The machine contains a 250GB boot drive and a striped RAID of two 1TB drives. The worry was that the RAID could be failing and/or causing so much crashing so dangerously close to deadlines. So I loaded up the backup drive, a 3.2TB array that contains all the footage, on a different mac pro of similar specs (has a kona card the main mac does not, and less RAM).

...And it STILL crashes! So although we may have discovered a drive problem, this seems software based. Is it mixed formats? Presumably the problem is more than just 'volume of edits.' It's a fast-paced program, but the crash-while-idle seems to dismiss that one. Many or most of the clips at this point have the 3-way CC and/or vignette filters applied. There are about a half a dozen text generator clips in use as well.

The project is Saved As daily, I've read through shane's stock answers and saw to it that there are no non-apple quicktime components installed, and I have sacrificed the preference files. I am now looking into ordering a spring-born goat as a certain kind of ritual may be in order. Any alternatives that come to mind would be welcome.

Thank you kindly.