Should I upgrade to FCS 3
 

I know it is general rule never to take any big alteration of ones system while in the middle of the project.

This is my setup:

Mac OS X, Version 10.5.8
Procesor 2 X 2,8 Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 6 GB 800 MHz DDR2
Graphic card: ATI Radeon HD 2600

I am in the middle of the project, a huge HD project with tens of hours of footage, and my Intel Mac Pro became quite unstable. It brakes often, usually when new task is being given. I suppose my graphic card is too weak (ATI 256 mb, two monitors). So, I begun thinking to upgrade from Final Cut Studio 2 to 3, and Snow Leopard at the same time.

Now, I would appreciate if more experienced people would suggest is this move to tricky, or has anyone done the same and survived the risk.

Would half done project in Final Cut 6 survive transfer to Final Cut 7.

Any help appreciated.

Upgrade in the middle of a project? Never, period.

If you're having instability issues with your system then you need to do maintenance and troubleshooting, not purchase a newer version of any application.

Download and run *all* the cleaning and maintenance routines in Onyx.

Download the Final Cut Maintenance pack from Digital Rebellion and see if that fixes Final Cut-related problems.

Get a copy of DiskWarrior and make sure your OS X directory is stable and clean.

Do those things first, and if you're still having issues let us know.

Thank you for your reply.

I downloaded Onyx but it fails to launch on my machine, getting message The Application OnyX quit unexpectedly. Tried to relaunch several times, reinstall, to no avail. It simply will not launch.

digital rebellion maintenance adviced that the reason for crushes is XDCAM codec, being MPEG 2, and suggested to trans-code my footage to ProRes. Not tempting.

Thanks again.

Then you've either got a severely damaged directory - which only DiskWarrior can fix - or a hardware issue. Either way I'd take the system to your local Genius Bar and see what they say, but if Onyx can't even load then you've got major problems in your software or hardware environment.

this is funny
 

I downloaded OnyX on my MacBook Pro - same result! It will not launch. Go figure. Even more funny - while trying to reinstall it on my laptop, I noticed that while I was earlier trying to download and instal OnyX couple of times on my desktop, it was downloaded on my laptop as well (which was on other desk), via bluetooth which was on (for no good reason obviously). The bluetooth somehow connected the two machines and I guess caused some conflict I can not resolve now. Tried to reinstall with bluetooth off, no luck. What a mess.

Luckily - no damage to FCP which runs as usual. I do believe it is graphic card, as Digital Rebel indicated the reason for crush is XDCAM (MPEG 2) conflict with graphic card:

Suspected Cause:
This crash was likely caused by a hardware accelerated decoder on your graphics card. A common cause of this crash is using MPEG-2 media (or MPEG-2-derived media such as XDCAM or HDV) in the timeline. This is one of many reasons why MPEG media is not recommended for editing.

Suggested Actions:
* Transcode any HDV, MPEG-2, XDCAM or other long-GOP media into an editing-friendly format such as ProRes or Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC).

But thanks a lot for wasting time with my shortcomings.

Just to be clear, there are different versions of Onyx; the version you need is 2.0.6 which was the last version compatible with OS 10.5. If you downloaded the *most* recent version, that was specifically written for Snow Leopard and not 10.5. That could be why it will not launch.

It's never a waste of time to offer help, even if that help doesn't come into play until sometime in the future.

Daniel...

You can try this (which is what I do):

-- Make backups of your projects.

-- Install a second hard drive into your Mac.

-- Onto this second drive install a completely new OS and make whatever upgrades to FCP and other production software as needed.

-- Make this second drive your startup drive and reboot.

If everything works fine, then great. If not, you still have your original setup that you can fall back to, and you still have backups of your project that will work with the previous version of FCP.

Once you get everything back to normal and working fine, make a clone of your new startup drive with Super Duper and keep the second drive as a backup boot drive just in case your main boot drive should fail.

Robert, you are very kind. Thanks.

And yes - I was trying to install newest OnyX. Version 2.0.6. worked instantly, but no problem was detected.

Dean, this sounds as a good idea. I do have 4 internal discs in my machine, so it would be quite easy to execute your suggestion. Just one (daft) question: were you referring to re-installation of my existing setuP ( VERSION 10.5.8. AND FCS 2) or can I install Snow Leopard + FCS 3 on my second drive?

I spoke yesterday with Mac rep here, and he told me most likely my graphic card was not up to the task, and it should be replaced with 512 MB card.

To describe what happens: I work normally, and then, typically I open one more bin to get clips. Icons start to appear, but then, half way through - machine stops for a second, I get that nasty colored wheel spinning and - Final Cut crushes. As if machine says: sorry, you ask too much. So - am I?