Ailing iMac/FCP in middle of deadline project. at DVinfo.net

David Scattergood · July 3rd, 2008, 07:24 AM

I'm not sure, but I'm fairly suspicious that my recent Gtech drive issues have been causing a few headaches with my set up ( http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=125099 )

Since losing total sight of the drive I finally (somehow) rescued it and will be leaving it on until I finish this current project (at least till the end of this weekend).
This morning, however I've had FCP show me the virtual middle finger with a constant spinning ball on start up. I couldn't force quit the app at all...it refused to budge. Restarting FCP would merely throw back an error message (firewire wasn't visible either). A reboot only would work.
I've run Tech Tool Deluxe (and Disk Utility) - all have passed.
I took out everything (bar the keyboard/mouse) and slowly brought everything back in and FCP is back up...for the time being. I can't afford the time to reinstall everything from scratch (having never done that before slightly anxious I'll lose tons of apps I've added to the set up over the years - possible to 'park' these on an external drive?)

Disk Warrior now seems a must (despite bad financial timing) but I'm also considering using Apple Care (for the first time - one year left) and contacting Gtech re the drive.
I only hope it's stable over the next few days (I'm completing the filming part of this job in a couple of hours).

I'll add that I had a first proper 'crash' with the iMac earlier - the desktop items vanished and the menu panel at the top of the mac screen turned blue.

Any of this sound at all familiar? I've carried out few searches here/google but time is rubbing me up the wrong way. Aside from purchasing Diskwarrior (then if need be contacting Gtech); reinstalling everything; taking the machine into an Apple store, are they any other suggestions?

Many thanks.

Duncan Craig · July 3rd, 2008, 07:51 AM

I guess you've done all the usual house keeping stuff, permissions, cron etc.
Have you tried logging in a new admin user.

To be honest, my system over here in Leeds hasn't really failed me since I set it up at version 4.0.

David Scattergood · July 3rd, 2008, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan Craig

I guess you've done all the usual house keeping stuff, permissions, cron etc.
Have you tried logging in a new admin user.

To be honest, my system over here in Leeds hasn't really failed me since I set it up at version 4.0.

Aye - repaired permissions yesterday, although I'm not sure what Cron is Duncan?
Haven't tried a new admin user ('kill' the old one?).
It's a pain because this system has been running perfectly for nearly two years.
I'm pinpointing it to the gtech issues (had run fine since recent loss of visible HDD) and possibly the QT 10.5 upgrade which has apparently caused so many issues. Once I've got this job out of the way then I'll investigate more thorough housekeeping stuff although if I'm honest, I've never been computer techy guy.

Duncan Craig · July 3rd, 2008, 08:08 AM

Hi again David, I think we may have met at Elite in Leeds a few time, possibly in Stuart's offices?

Anyway, cron scripts are the housekeeping stuff the mac does is the middle of the night. AFAIK if you turn you mac off at night it won't run them.

Go to http://www.titanium.free.fr/ and download maintenance, run it and let it do all of the 'maintenance' and 'cleaning' tasks (not all the 'reset' task are worth running too often, but it's up to you)

You shouldn't delete the old user profile. Just create another with admin privileges and see if it runs any smoother.

Then there's other stuff you can try like resetting the pram and GPU (i think it called that?). But I'd run maintenance first then a new user.

Robert Lane · July 3rd, 2008, 08:12 AM

David,

As mentioned in the other thread, download and run Onyx (not maintenance as Onyx has the full-suite of routines that maintenance does not). Disk Warrior is a must for your situation, delaying the use of both puts your system at greater risk by the minute.

TechTool (lite, Deluxe and Pro) has proven itself to be impotent with respect to actually fixing anything. It can be used as a diagnostic to help troubleshoot "some" issues. It does not address directory or file issues and has limited abilities to properly diagnose hardware issues. Case in point: A client just a month ago was having serious system slowdown issues on his MacPro. TechToolPro indicated all drives were "green" however a quick hardware test of the suspected drive indicated read-write issues. We imaged and replaced the drive and all was back to normal. The drive did completely fail on a test bench less than 24 hours later. *Do not* rely on TechTool to accurately diagnose a hardware problem.

If you have a current AppleCare contract that might be helpful but unless you purchased "Pro Care" from Apple you'll be in for a long wait while the "geniuses" get to your system in-line.

Chances are you can quickly identify and fix these issues on your own and with far greater speed than AppleCare will offer. However if your ailments are purely hardware related then a trip to the Apple Store is your only choice.

Duncan Craig · July 3rd, 2008, 08:22 AM

Cool, thanks for the info Robert.
I guess Onyx must be new, and worth downloading as it is free.

Although to be honest Maintenance will do the job and has less options to screw up, why do the makers still have it available for download if Onyx supercedes it?

It's a shame couldn't just keep the name 'maintenance' it's obvious what's it for then isn't it?
Onyx sounds a bit Unixy,Linuxy and techy for me.

Edit, from the titanium forums: Maintenance is a subset of Onyx and is targeted to people who only wants to run the basic maintenance tasks, not the expert tasks. That's you answer. I'll keep using maintenance!!

(P.S. If you want to have a mess around with a 35mm adaptor let me know)

Robert Lane · July 3rd, 2008, 08:42 AM

Duncan,

Onyx does very beneficial things for the system that maintenance doesn't. You can opt to *only* run the maintenance routines in Onyx if you prefer but the added features are a real asset. Try it, I think once you see what it's capable of you'll become a user.

Thanks for the DOF adapter offer: I been using the Pro35 extensively on 2/3"inch cams for many years and the Letus Extreme for the handhelds.

David Scattergood · July 3rd, 2008, 08:45 AM

Duncan - it's not me unfortunately...I have visited Leeds once but purely on leisure terms.
I have a namesake? :)

Robert - I'll probably nip to buy a hardcopy of disk warrior over the weekend rather than wait for one to be shipped (although it's available as download also?).
I'll also try Onyx whilst I'm at. So far things have gone quiet...I'm typing this whilst capturing (SD however and not HDV on this occasion).
To be honest I'm looking at more efficient (hopefully cheaper) HDD solutions (both for project captures etc and for back up). I'm probably going to pick up a cheap USB HDD to dump all the gtech data on once projects are complete - I think you mentioned this route in another thread. I'm also interested in the esata (?) options - Paulo Ciccone amongst others have referred to this (I presume you can then merely slot out the drives from enclosures once completed...but that's as much as I know on that front).

I have to take the iMac to the applestore anyhow - I tested a monitor lead I purchased in there which no longer works on my second (CRT) monitor. tests assumed it was the port on the back of the mac...so whilst I'm there I'll get them to 'MOT' it (if they do that kind of thing?).

Something isn't right with 'her' though. Past month she's slowed up somewhat and can be tetchy somewhat. Reading many of these comments however, I should really pay more attention to the general 'housekeeping'.

Duncan - ah - I see you have a 35mm adaptor - I'm seriously thinking of 'a' 35mm option...that might be a very good idea.

cheers.

David Scattergood · July 3rd, 2008, 08:49 AM

Quote:

been using the Pro35 extensively on 2/3"inch cams for many years and the Letus Extreme for the handhelds.

Is that similar to the SRPRO adaptor Robert (...apologies...going off my own thread here...whole tape capture can be somewhat tiresome!).

Duncan Craig · July 3rd, 2008, 09:06 AM

Sorry for the confusion with my previous posts, the 35mm adaptor offer was for David as he is only a few miles away over the mountains from me in the UK.

I've been trying to log into this site again, it keeps logging me out and won't store the bloody password. Then a torrent of emails come in from paypal and ebuyer about rejected payments for kit I am waiting for, then two clients call at once. Aargh. What a day!

Just downloading Onyx now.

David, if you want a cheap USB drive, look no further than...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128465/

500GB, £50 delivered. Just ordered four more today!

Robert Lane · July 3rd, 2008, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Scattergood

Is that similar to the SRPRO adaptor Robert (...apologies...going off my own thread here...whole tape capture can be somewhat tiresome!).

If you're referring to the SG Pro, it's *similar* in that it's a DOF/35mm adapter but Letus is far and away a superior product. Check out the Alternative Imaging categories here on the forum or:

http://www.letus35.com.

David Scattergood · July 3rd, 2008, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan Craig

Sorry for the confusion with my previous posts, the 35mm adaptor offer was for David as he is only a few miles away over the mountains from me in the UK.

I've been trying to log into this site again, it keeps logging me out and won't store the bloody password. Then a torrent of emails come in from paypal and ebuyer about rejected payments for kit I am waiting for, then two clients call at once. Aargh. What a day!

Just downloading Onyx now.

David, if you want a cheap USB drive, look no further than...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128465/

500GB, £50 delivered. Just ordered four more today!

Thanks Duncan - I'll check out the drives too - £50 for 500gb storage doesn't seem at all bad. What lens' do you use by the way (in fact I'll mail you instead over the next couple of days instead of going off track on this thread).

Quote:

If you're referring to the SG Pro, it's *similar* in that it's a DOF/35mm adapter but Letus is far and away a superior product. Check out the Alternative Imaging categories here on the forum or:

http://www.letus35.com

Thanks Robert. Yes - I've seen some pretty stunning footage taken with the letus (with the JVCHD*** range which I own). No doubt a little pricey though?
Any road...system still stable (just back from a job....which I'll have to do again next week as they messed up the times of a performance and neglected to tell me...is this line of work supposed to so hair-tearing-out'ingly maddening? :)
I'll let you know how I get on over the next few days.

Many thanks for the comments.

David Scattergood · July 4th, 2008, 05:16 AM

...unfortunately this morning I cannot open FCP - I also cannot force quit FCP, the only option being a hard shutdown by the power button.
I've now lost Finder...and I've a ton of footage to capture and edit.
I've run ONYX (via admin account - couldn't access a password on my usual account).
I was contemplating reinstalling FCP before a total archive - any good links to a workflow? ( I'm really not mac/computer savvy when it comes to things like that) or should I follow Robert's sticky post?

I also should bite the bullet and purchase DiskWarrior...arghhh. What a few days I'm having folks :(

David Scattergood · July 6th, 2008, 07:08 AM

Purchased this yesterday and found it very easy to run through the options.
The Gtech EXT and USB EXT were both 'clean' once the program ran through them.
The Internal drive, however, had a couple of files which were irreparable (although no course of action was advised - I remember at least one being a plist file).
Anyhow - quite possibly a must have program for mac users - thanks for recommending this Robert.

Once back up the iMac is running much, much quicker - it is indeed like a new computer.
I expected to see the 'repaired drives' which I 'replaced' on the finder?

However this morning FCP would not open and subsequently wouldn't close (hard reboots yet again). Once up, the entire desktop vanished (aside from the background image). Another manual reboot and I've got FCP back up to continue fighting with this current project but I cannot think of anything else I can do aside from take the whole machine in to an apple store??? FCP, if not the whole internal drive, may require reinstalling but I guess I'll speak with apple first - I've simply exhausted the limits of my knowledge when it comes to repairing computers.

Robert Lane · July 6th, 2008, 11:45 AM

Sounds as if you may indeed have either a hardware issue (RAM lockups or the like) or a seriously corrupted application file. In either case a trip to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store is warranted.

July 3rd, 2008, 07:24 AM	#1
David Scattergood Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 755	Ailing iMac/FCP in middle of deadline project. I'm not sure, but I'm fairly suspicious that my recent Gtech drive issues have been causing a few headaches with my set up ( http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=125099 ) Since losing total sight of the drive I finally (somehow) rescued it and will be leaving it on until I finish this current project (at least till the end of this weekend). This morning, however I've had FCP show me the virtual middle finger with a constant spinning ball on start up. I couldn't force quit the app at all...it refused to budge. Restarting FCP would merely throw back an error message (firewire wasn't visible either). A reboot only would work. I've run Tech Tool Deluxe (and Disk Utility) - all have passed. I took out everything (bar the keyboard/mouse) and slowly brought everything back in and FCP is back up...for the time being. I can't afford the time to reinstall everything from scratch (having never done that before slightly anxious I'll lose tons of apps I've added to the set up over the years - possible to 'park' these on an external drive?) Disk Warrior now seems a must (despite bad financial timing) but I'm also considering using Apple Care (for the first time - one year left) and contacting Gtech re the drive. I only hope it's stable over the next few days (I'm completing the filming part of this job in a couple of hours). I'll add that I had a first proper 'crash' with the iMac earlier - the desktop items vanished and the menu panel at the top of the mac screen turned blue. Any of this sound at all familiar? I've carried out few searches here/google but time is rubbing me up the wrong way. Aside from purchasing Diskwarrior (then if need be contacting Gtech); reinstalling everything; taking the machine into an Apple store, are they any other suggestions? Many thanks.

July 3rd, 2008, 07:51 AM	#2
Duncan Craig Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Leeds, UK Posts: 660 Images: 10	I guess you've done all the usual house keeping stuff, permissions, cron etc. Have you tried logging in a new admin user. To be honest, my system over here in Leeds hasn't really failed me since I set it up at version 4.0. __________________ FCPX/LS300/EX1/FS100/GoPro/Vinten/HotHead/Jib/Track/Dedos/Lightstorm/Coollights

July 3rd, 2008, 08:08 AM	#4
Duncan Craig Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Leeds, UK Posts: 660 Images: 10	Hi again David, I think we may have met at Elite in Leeds a few time, possibly in Stuart's offices? Anyway, cron scripts are the housekeeping stuff the mac does is the middle of the night. AFAIK if you turn you mac off at night it won't run them. Go to http://www.titanium.free.fr/ and download maintenance, run it and let it do all of the 'maintenance' and 'cleaning' tasks (not all the 'reset' task are worth running too often, but it's up to you) You shouldn't delete the old user profile. Just create another with admin privileges and see if it runs any smoother. Then there's other stuff you can try like resetting the pram and GPU (i think it called that?). But I'd run maintenance first then a new user. __________________ FCPX/LS300/EX1/FS100/GoPro/Vinten/HotHead/Jib/Track/Dedos/Lightstorm/Coollights

July 3rd, 2008, 08:22 AM	#6
Duncan Craig Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Leeds, UK Posts: 660 Images: 10	Cool, thanks for the info Robert. I guess Onyx must be new, and worth downloading as it is free. Although to be honest Maintenance will do the job and has less options to screw up, why do the makers still have it available for download if Onyx supercedes it? It's a shame couldn't just keep the name 'maintenance' it's obvious what's it for then isn't it? Onyx sounds a bit Unixy,Linuxy and techy for me. Edit, from the titanium forums: Maintenance is a subset of Onyx and is targeted to people who only wants to run the basic maintenance tasks, not the expert tasks. That's you answer. I'll keep using maintenance!! (P.S. If you want to have a mess around with a 35mm adaptor let me know) __________________ FCPX/LS300/EX1/FS100/GoPro/Vinten/HotHead/Jib/Track/Dedos/Lightstorm/Coollights Last edited by Duncan Craig; July 3rd, 2008 at 08:28 AM. Reason: Additional wafle

July 3rd, 2008, 09:06 AM	#10
Duncan Craig Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Leeds, UK Posts: 660 Images: 10	Oops Sorry for the confusion with my previous posts, the 35mm adaptor offer was for David as he is only a few miles away over the mountains from me in the UK. I've been trying to log into this site again, it keeps logging me out and won't store the bloody password. Then a torrent of emails come in from paypal and ebuyer about rejected payments for kit I am waiting for, then two clients call at once. Aargh. What a day! Just downloading Onyx now. David, if you want a cheap USB drive, look no further than... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128465/ 500GB, £50 delivered. Just ordered four more today! __________________ FCPX/LS300/EX1/FS100/GoPro/Vinten/HotHead/Jib/Track/Dedos/Lightstorm/Coollights

July 3rd, 2008, 08:12 AM	#5
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,788 Images: 15	David, As mentioned in the other thread, download and run Onyx (not maintenance as Onyx has the full-suite of routines that maintenance does not). Disk Warrior is a must for your situation, delaying the use of both puts your system at greater risk by the minute. TechTool (lite, Deluxe and Pro) has proven itself to be impotent with respect to actually fixing anything. It can be used as a diagnostic to help troubleshoot "some" issues. It does not address directory or file issues and has limited abilities to properly diagnose hardware issues. Case in point: A client just a month ago was having serious system slowdown issues on his MacPro. TechToolPro indicated all drives were "green" however a quick hardware test of the suspected drive indicated read-write issues. We imaged and replaced the drive and all was back to normal. The drive did completely fail on a test bench less than 24 hours later. Do not rely on TechTool to accurately diagnose a hardware problem. If you have a current AppleCare contract that might be helpful but unless you purchased "Pro Care" from Apple you'll be in for a long wait while the "geniuses" get to your system in-line. Chances are you can quickly identify and fix these issues on your own and with far greater speed than AppleCare will offer. However if your ailments are purely hardware related then a trip to the Apple Store is your only choice.

July 3rd, 2008, 08:42 AM	#7
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,788 Images: 15	Duncan, Onyx does very beneficial things for the system that maintenance doesn't. You can opt to only run the maintenance routines in Onyx if you prefer but the added features are a real asset. Try it, I think once you see what it's capable of you'll become a user. Thanks for the DOF adapter offer: I been using the Pro35 extensively on 2/3"inch cams for many years and the Letus Extreme for the handhelds.

July 3rd, 2008, 08:45 AM	#8
David Scattergood Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 755	Duncan - it's not me unfortunately...I have visited Leeds once but purely on leisure terms. I have a namesake? :) Robert - I'll probably nip to buy a hardcopy of disk warrior over the weekend rather than wait for one to be shipped (although it's available as download also?). I'll also try Onyx whilst I'm at. So far things have gone quiet...I'm typing this whilst capturing (SD however and not HDV on this occasion). To be honest I'm looking at more efficient (hopefully cheaper) HDD solutions (both for project captures etc and for back up). I'm probably going to pick up a cheap USB HDD to dump all the gtech data on once projects are complete - I think you mentioned this route in another thread. I'm also interested in the esata (?) options - Paulo Ciccone amongst others have referred to this (I presume you can then merely slot out the drives from enclosures once completed...but that's as much as I know on that front). I have to take the iMac to the applestore anyhow - I tested a monitor lead I purchased in there which no longer works on my second (CRT) monitor. tests assumed it was the port on the back of the mac...so whilst I'm there I'll get them to 'MOT' it (if they do that kind of thing?). Something isn't right with 'her' though. Past month she's slowed up somewhat and can be tetchy somewhat. Reading many of these comments however, I should really pay more attention to the general 'housekeeping'. Duncan - ah - I see you have a 35mm adaptor - I'm seriously thinking of 'a' 35mm option...that might be a very good idea. cheers.

July 4th, 2008, 05:16 AM	#13
David Scattergood Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 755	...unfortunately this morning I cannot open FCP - I also cannot force quit FCP, the only option being a hard shutdown by the power button. I've now lost Finder...and I've a ton of footage to capture and edit. I've run ONYX (via admin account - couldn't access a password on my usual account). I was contemplating reinstalling FCP before a total archive - any good links to a workflow? ( I'm really not mac/computer savvy when it comes to things like that) or should I follow Robert's sticky post? I also should bite the bullet and purchase DiskWarrior...arghhh. What a few days I'm having folks :(

July 6th, 2008, 07:08 AM	#14
David Scattergood Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 755	Disk Warriror Purchased this yesterday and found it very easy to run through the options. The Gtech EXT and USB EXT were both 'clean' once the program ran through them. The Internal drive, however, had a couple of files which were irreparable (although no course of action was advised - I remember at least one being a plist file). Anyhow - quite possibly a must have program for mac users - thanks for recommending this Robert. Once back up the iMac is running much, much quicker - it is indeed like a new computer. I expected to see the 'repaired drives' which I 'replaced' on the finder? However this morning FCP would not open and subsequently wouldn't close (hard reboots yet again). Once up, the entire desktop vanished (aside from the background image). Another manual reboot and I've got FCP back up to continue fighting with this current project but I cannot think of anything else I can do aside from take the whole machine in to an apple store??? FCP, if not the whole internal drive, may require reinstalling but I guess I'll speak with apple first - I've simply exhausted the limits of my knowledge when it comes to repairing computers.

July 6th, 2008, 11:45 AM	#15
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,788 Images: 15	Sounds as if you may indeed have either a hardware issue (RAM lockups or the like) or a seriously corrupted application file. In either case a trip to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store is warranted.