Final Cut Pro frequently crashing in Mac OS X Snow Leopard

[Mr.Ryszard]

A year ago i purchased a Mac Pro to edit HDV footage using Apple Final Cut Pro or FCP. The system specs are as follows:

• Intel Xeon Quad-Core2.8Ghz
• 4GB Ram Kingston module
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3
• 320GB SATA + 3 x 750GB SATA 16MB Cache HDD
• Apple Final Cut Studio 2
• OS X Snow Leopard v10.5.6.

For first 3-4 days everything was fine. After that it started crashing regularly. In a working day it crashes up to 10 times. After crashing, a dialogue box appears saying "The application Final Cut Pro quit unexpectedly" dialogue box. Sometimes the FCP just wouldn't open after the crash. I did several hardware tests but it didn’t reveal any fault. I have formatted and re-installed the Mac OS X but no help. What can I do now?

[Muwafaq]

It seems to me that you have only 4 GBs of memory but you have configured them as 2 x 1GBs and 1 x 2GBs. I think that this incorrect combination of Ram modules can cause the problem. Try a 2GB memory module and match the pair. Maybe this time, you can run the FCP properly. If you have doubt about the RAM configuration, check the user manual.

[aFRODITA]

It seems to me that crash happened due to the hardware accelerated decoder of graphics card. It is a common cause where most systems are suffering. Seems like you are using the MPEG-2 media (or MPEG-2-derived media for example XDCAM or HDV) in the timeline. That’s why many professional editors suggest that MPEG media is not recommended for editing.

[KennedII]

I don’t think that it is the problem with media format. Since you are using the latest version of Final Cut pro, I think that it should support editing in any compatible format. Problem may be due to the OS X confused disk directories. In most of the cases directories will be imprinted on the disk while you shut down or restart the computer. If the directories written properly, then everything is fine. But a crash and accidental shutdown may not able to update the directories properly

[brynhildur]

At any time, if you upgrade the application, operating system or whenever you encounter a crash or when Mac takes longer time to boot and shutdown, then you have to do the following:

• Restart MAC while holding the SHIFT key down.
• When the system shows the blue screen, release the Shift key (notice "Safe Boot" appears on the screen)
• After the system boot up, go to Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility.
• Inside the Disk Utility choose the boot disk
• Run "Repair Permissions"
• restart the system after the completion.

[Svana]

As far as I know that Final Cut Pro X shares video by the use of Quicktime engine. If there are any incompatible components on the Quicktime, it would reason to severe crashing. Most of Quicktime components are based on 3rd party plug-ins. These plug-ins will allow you to play and export different media files. If there is a 3ivx video component, it is can also causes incompatibility issues. Removing some might help you to run FCP better.