I get the beachball no matter what...
by Georg P. Muller
on
Sep 9, 2005 at 4:46:32 am
Here my specs:
HMV 1200 Dual Max, Atto UL4D, G5 Dual with 2 gigs of ram, Decklink SP, F.C.P 5.02, OSX 10.4.2, QT 7.02
I have already updated the firmware of the Atto and HMV, blanked the HMV and re-striped it, yet my problem persists: I get the infinite beachball in FCP when playing a timeline, sooner or later (it takes between 20 minutes to 2 hours to hang). Sometimes it happens in the middle of editing, sometimes during playout to tape. I every case I have to force quit the application (without a chance of saving my work) and then reboot. Sometimes the G5 would not reboot and I'd have to do a cold shutdown.
Just to make sure everything else is okay on the system: When I play media off the internal drives I get neither a beachball nor the spinning pizza of death.
While backing up data I realized that even finder stops responding when copying too many things from the huge at the same time.
Now I hooked up the HMV to a PC via the diagnostic cable to run the disk tests. I just realized that the lower fan was not spinning and gave it a little spin with a screw driver. Now it is working again (I guess I should replace it immediately). Might *THAT* be the cause for my nightmares???
Re: I get the beachball no matter what... by Georg P. Muller on Sep 12, 2005 at 3:25:10 am
Hi Lance,
Thanks for the response. I don't think it's the project as it is happening with each and every project, whether migrated from 4.5 or created under 5.02. In the meantime I have used the diagnostic cable to re-format each half of the HMV and then built a new stripe set in Tiger. I have also uninstalled the Atto Configuration Utility.
In a first test I was able to play back a 2.5 hours timeline without interruption to the end. That's a big step forward. But then I tried to move the mouse and sure enough I got the beachball again. At least it took longer than usual to see my old spinning friend again.
Now I have trashed the FCP preferences. Let's see whether this helps - I am testing as I write this.
Re: I get the beachball no matter what... by Georg P. Muller on Sep 12, 2005 at 5:14:04 am
Just an update... Did run the test and the beachball came at 2:44 of a 3:09 timeline. Will now move the project and media to a little fw pocketdrive and see whether that plays non-stop. In previous tests/work situations a FW drive continued working where the HMV failed. This means the blackmagic and other system configuration works fine and the problem must be related to either the ATTO UL4D or HUGE HMV.
If so I will try moving the UL4D to another PCI-slot.
After that I will be running out of ideas. What makes it so hard is the fact that I don't get any clear idea what happenes - ie. I don't know where to find the information in the console. There is no entry in the FCP crash reporter.
Re: I get the beachball no matter what... by Georg P. Muller on Sep 13, 2005 at 3:03:19 am
Hi Lance,
I have now copied the media files to my little pocket firewire and re-linked the clips in my timeline to those files on the fw. I then put my playback to loop and pressed the spacebar to play. It was playing all night. When I came in this morning it was still playing.
I wish my HMV could give me the same reliability. The problems of beachballing (as if the drive could not find what it is looking for) started after upgrading to tiger (clean install).
Here is what I have done to troubleshoot:
updated firmware and driver of the ATTO UL4D
unistalled the ATTO configuration utitlity
updated firmware on the Huge HMV
run disk tests on each half of the HMV - the speed is roughly the same on each drive
reformated each side and rebuilt a stripe set (raid 0) in tiger.
I will be busy today with other work but will come back troubleshooting tonight. My idea is to put the UL4D into another slot. Which slot would be the best (I also habe a decklink SP installed)?
Please give me some ideas on how to troubleshoot this problem.
Re: I get the beachball no matter what... by Lance R. Gropper on Sep 13, 2005 at 2:29:34 pm
Hello Georg:
As I've mentioned in another thread here, the actual data format on the array is different in 10.4.x, than in previous OSes. Hopefully, after you reformatted/restriped it, you will have better luck...
Re: Was there ever a resolution to this problem??!! by Georg P. Muller on Sep 16, 2005 at 1:15:54 am
Sorry to hear you got the same problems, but it is good to see that I am not alone... Reformating and restriping seems to have helped and I am "cautiously optimistic". I have managed to play out a couple of tapes including a 3 and a half hours DV tape without a hitch. That is a big progession.
Yesterday I was editing intensly for a couple of hours and almost forgot that I ever had a problem with the HMV, until, suddenly and during normal operation, the beachball was back. I thought it will be spinning eternally and switched to the finder to start looking for my auto save vault (I developed that habit)... Then, after about 1 minute and to my surprise, FCP was back. It was just a scare and no harm done. First thing was pressing option apple s.
But it is exactly this kind of stuff that gives me the creeps. Let's see how I will get through today. I m still hoping for the best...
Re: Was there ever a resolution to this problem??!! by Jerry Hofmann on Sep 16, 2005 at 1:48:34 am
How did you all build your Tiger systems with FCP 5. This is really a must to have done it right. erase install, update, download QT 7.0.2 stand alone update to 7... not SU version. THEN install everything that SU wants.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: "Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4" Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
PS I was too brief. by Jerry Hofmann on Sep 16, 2005 at 2:03:19 am
1. Erase and install of Tiger from it's disk. (optional installs or something once a drive is highlighted).
2. Run Software update and install all but QuickTime 7.0.2. DOWNLOAD from Apple the standalone installer, then install it.
3. Install FCP 5.0
4. Run software update and accept it all or not... but if it's part of the Pro apps, Install it.
You'll be as "clean" with software as possible, from here anyway. It's the most reilable and stable I have, but have an older UL3D card, and an ATTO Fibre card and Huge 4 gig array, so not quite the same as yours. All latest drivers, flash routines, you name it... Kona 2 system. Latest software. I run all other apps from my 1.3.8 backup system I keep on another SATA BTW, no problems. Gotta say, even keep FCP project files there. They run from their own drive that way.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: "Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4" Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
Re: PS I was too brief. by Lance R. Gropper on Sep 16, 2005 at 2:33:53 pm
Hello Georg:
What version of the Atto driver are you using? And can you e-mail me a copy of your project? (2nd request) I have seen this problem about 3 times in the last week -- all from projects which had mistakes...
Re: PS I was too brief. by Georg Peter Muller on Sep 19, 2005 at 9:42:57 am
Hi Lance,
I have compressed a couple of projects but don't have your mail address. Please let me know where to send them.
One strange thing with these projects is that if I copy and relink media files in any sequence to a FW drive there is no more beachball. It only appeared while I was playing off the HMV 1.2TB....
