Re: Updated everything, a few problems within....

Hi all,

Well, at present I am trying out a MacPro tower (2010) 4,1 flashed to 5,1. Not really gone too smooth, but have a nightmare with FCPX.4.

When I was looking at the machine, I was offered a SSD drive. Thought yep, pay the extra, future proof things. One question I have here is why are the SSD's so small in capacity?. this is only 120GB. I have preferences files bigger than that!.
Anyway, got that. Then I was asked if I wanted to update the MACHINE RAM to 16GB (from 8gb). Thought gee, lets go for the 24GB's that were on offer, again going for the long term investment.
The machine was setup with High Sierra, so that is good.

Only version of FCPX I could go for was 10.4, so update to that. But here is where the problems start. It is certainly a lot faster to start than the old setup. That s good. But just at odd times it crashes. One time I was changing the window size for the screen. I got it adjusted to the first move, then when I went to fine tune that move - CRASH. Instant finder. another time I was previewing a filter by doing a rollover, got halfway through the filter, then crash.
Other times are just random. Except there is one thing I cannot do without it crashing every time, and that is try to access the Preferences in FCP. Not going to happen. Back to the finder as well.

Any ideas as to a fix?. Does sound like corruption, but on a fresh install?. Not looking too stable :).

I like the Mac Pro tower - it will give me plenty of expansion with Audio / Video cards. But things have not gone smoothly - that is for sure.

Thanks everyone.

Pete

I'm running a 27" iMac (mid-2011) with 20 GB RAM. Since upgrading to FCP 10.4, I've been getting frequent random crashes when I do simple things like turn on and off color effects like Color Wheels or Color Curves. You should report this to Final Cut Pro Feedback. You probably won't get a reply but the tech support do read the comments and may include a fix for what I suspect isa bug (at least in my case).

Thanks Phil - will send to Apple.

Actually at present I have been working on the Mac Pro. Hasn't gone smoothly - but am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just have one dilemma.... The main start drive is an SSD. Since it is only 120gb in size, I have managed to fill it up with just a few of the programs I use. This has created a problem with FCPX, as I cannot install the 'Templates Folder' - which of course holds all the plugins. At present I cannot see a way around this, as if the templates are not on the same drive as the start volume, FCPX just creates a new one with the basics. I did try to install the templates on a spare drive I have mounted, then zipped across an ALIAS of that folder to the Movies location. It does not get recognised.

Any ideas?

Thanks!,

Pete

Hi Pete
My best advice to you would be to purchase a larger ssd for your boot drive. It really is important and there is no work around if your drives don't have a good amount of free space. You will see significant slowdowns, spinning beach balls and even experience possible crashes if you don't maintain at least 10-15% empty space on your drives. They will start slowing down even with 25-35% free space. Video tends to be large continuous files, and you are just making the drives work too hard and ssd drives write in large blocks. Large files and large blocks need space.
So really, you need to save your pennies and get a larger drive.
While I haven't attempted to move the templets folder to a different drive, I suspect that in order for this to work, you need to create Symlinks not alias'. Symlinks are necessary when an application calls for resources during the launch routine and an alias does not get accessed until after launch completion. In Logic ProX as an example, you have to use symlinks not alias' for the sound libraries, otherwise LPX will just attempt to download them during launching the program. A symlink is a lower level file address that points to location. You need to use Terminal to create symlinks.
Like I said, I haven't done this for the plug-ins, but I keep sound libraries on an SD card and use symlinks to point to them. The SD card is fast enough and I need all my other ports for audio interfaces and drives on my rMBP.
Hope this Helps, Greg

Thanks so much Greg for the detailed reply.
Well, I had a go at creating Symlinks, both using a utility (Symbolic Linker) and with terminal - looks like both failed.
Maybe it cannot done with the Templates Folder?.

Any body else done this?.

Checked up on (what I would class as a ludicrously small drive) a 1TB SSD drive. They start about $800.00. Ouch. That is not going to happen too soon.

I wonder why SSD's are so expensive?. The technology has been around for a while (flash drives), and they should be making this stuff by the millions in Malaysia - Indonesia - South China. Where everything else is made :).

Guess if a solution cannot be found, I will have to change the SSD to one of my 2TB sata drives for the start volume. It worked on the iMac - kinda well!.

Cheers for now,

Pete

Gee, again thanks Greg for the helpful reply.
Yes, the big SSD's are quite expensive here. But having another look I have found cheaper alternatives with the 500GB size.
Not too sure why Sumbolic Links not working. It creates the 'shortcut' folder, I move that to the Movies folder okay. When I launch FCPX - it creates a new 'templates' folder with just the default goodies right next to the Symbolic linked folder. Like it does not recognise it at all. So maybe the Linker is not working?.
Might try using the terminal direct and see what happens.
I have back dated to FCPx.3.3 - which seems to be working fine. So am not using 10.4 at this stage.

I have attached a screen shot of the graphics data - hope that helps...

Again, thanks Greg. I shall try a few options, but looks like the symbol link is not working using the linker. So that might be a starting place there.

Cheers,

Pete

Well, making progress!.
I tried the Symlink using just terminal, and it all works - 100%. So I guess that SYMAPP did not work after all.

So all good as far as that is concerned. Thanks Greg again for the advice.

One thing I am confused regarding the PCI slots is that the machine is touted as having all slots PCIe. But 2 are 16 lanes, and 2 are 4 lanes. So do I have to match up whatever Graphics cards I buy with the correct amount of lanes?. Or do the correct amount of lanes get addressed by whatever card is present?.

Else all is going good.

All the best everyone,

Pete

Hi Pete
Glad to hear you worked out Symlinks. I am in the middle of a fresh install for High Sierra and in process of re-downloading all my Pro Apps and so Logic/Garageband sound files are going back on a SD card using Symlinks. Saves over 50GB from my internal drive. FCPX 10.4 installed.

Put your graphics card(s) in the 16 lane slot(s). You want the most lanes for the GPU.
If you have a second matched GPU you can use 2 cards together for dual GPUs, but they need to be matching GPU cards.

Drives, USB3 PCIe cards, etc… can use any slot; even the slower slots with no issues. Even with just 4 lanes the PCIe bus has higher bandwidth than most drives. Your model has PCIe 2.0 buses.

Hope this Helps, Greg

Thanks so much Greg - sorry I have not been back to reply.
Yep, the Symlinks are a welcome feature. And are working fine.

Graphics cards are using the 16 lane bus. Thanks. I was familiar with matching the video cards, and have seen a few demos on youTUBE regarding This. Might be Worth a try out later.

thanks for the info Greg.

Cheers for now,

Pete