G5 Quad or Mac Pro?

I was prepared to purchase a QUAD G5 (w/7800 card) a few months ago and I decided to wait for the WWDC announcements... Now, I'm torn between the G5 QUAD and the Mac Pro (3Ghz w/1900 card). They both offer a mix of benefits...
BTW: I have a need to scan thousands of film negatives (via Nikon film scanner) and some prints (via flatbed scanner). I will scan to 16 bit (110 Mb files) and will catalog in Aperture. I'm not sure what software or drivers I will want to use or will be required to use...
I also use FC Studio, MX Studio, CS2, and have some interest in After Effects. Over the years I have not used Adobe products heavily; yet, that's changing. I mention this because this may impact your recommendation below.
What option would perform best?
I appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Robert

The Mac Pro (Intel) is the future obviously, and the G5 is going to fade away into oblivion. But that is 6 months down the pike. Even loaded up with a moderate amount of RAM the MP is pretty snappy running Rosetta. The question that only you can answer is, is that fast enough for you. And does all the legacy software you need to run work well under Rosetta.
Right now the G5 is still the better platform to run Adobe products. Once CS3 comes out that will change and you'll want a Mac Pro. So keep in mind that any benefits a G5 offers will be short lived. If you do a lot of business scanning then you can afford to buy a G5 now, and sell it when CS3 comes out. Otherwise, you either have to commit to being locked into a system for 3 years, and gradually lose pace with competitor's (who have Mac Pros) productivity or compromise your productivity now for a few months until CS3 ships. There is no real surefire choice right now in your situation.
FC Studio is already UB, so your decision really seems to hinge on how much you use CS2 daily, and how well the Nikon software works on the MP.

Similar Messages

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks? What do I need to do dif

Time machine only copies User Info and Users (Applications, Library, and System are missing) from my quad core Mac Pro. 45 Gb of 162 Gb are missing. Any one having success with time machine copying all folders using Mavericks?
What do I need to do differently?

The late, great Pondini was investigating that issue before he passed away.
See here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5125969
I think there might be information there on how to reset Time Machine to do a full backup. I think you basically have to reset it and start over.

Intel Core Duo, or 2 Quad cores (Mac Pro)?

While I like the idea of a portable Mac, I want to know if there will be a big difference between the rendering ability of a Quad Core system (Mac Pro) and a Duo core system (Macbook Pro). I went into an Apple store today & opened up Final Cut Pro on a display Macbook Pro 2.4 GHz w/2 Gigs RAM. I applied an obnoxious number of filters to see how long it would take to render & it basically shut the application down ("Final Cut Pro not responding"). So really, before I invest 2 or 3 thousand dollars, I'd like to know if going with the desktop unit will be worth it - will the 2 quad cores mean that FCP will render layers of filters easily that slow down or grind to a standstill on the Macbook Pro I tried?

MAC PRO 8core: Simply, if you have a business and/or workflow need and you need to render and transcode with more resources and you can afford it and you have HBA's and other peripherals and you have a large SCREEN and so on then go buy one.
the iMAC is fien for home usage and renders and transcodes well. Rumours of a new 1uad core continue to circulate.
Rumours of an update have been circulating for ages for the MACPRO for 2009. IF you wanna wait then do that. If you want to go first and you have HBAs and sowfatre that you wanna try out before most then as usual wait, else as above go buy one.
If you need one go get one.. an 8core (2 x quad core) . THEse work great.
budget constrained as alternative to MACPRO then consider:
• iMAC (also new rumoured) + new rumoured MAC mini and use QMASTER over a GbE hub for compressor.app, maya, shake etc... (not implemented for FCP in single user mode yet in FCSuite 2)
w

Quad Core iMac vs. Quad Core Mac Pro?

My old Dual 2.5Ghz PowerMac had a coolant leak and Apple is replacing it with a Quad Core 2.66Ghz Mac Pro with 8 gigs of ram and 1 terabyte hd. Is the new Quad Core iMac a more powerful computer? 2.66Ghz vs. 2.66Ghz - NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 vs. ATI Radeon HD 4850? I'm thinking about not even opening the Mac Pro and putting it and my 24" Dell monitor on eBay. Help!

The iMac still has no PCI Express slots and is limited in the RAM upgrade versatility compared to the Mac Pro. Furthermore with only a single Firewire port, uncompressed video capture to a fast hard drive has to take place to a separate partition of the internal hard drive to ensure uninterrupted capture. On the hand it has an infrared port for the remote that the Mac Pro doesn't have, and an SD slot. The SD slot is good for still digital camera media, if you have an SD compatible camera, and it is good for "sneakernet" of data to other machines with SD slots or SD camera adapters. Many printers have these slots nowadays too. A bootable backup can be made to an SD card.
PCI Express offers SATA cards, and Fiberoptic connector cards for faster hard drive connectivity, as well as faster networking, and faster video and audio interface cards than can be found via Firewire and USB.
Also the Mac Pro can have up to 4 internal SATA hard drives.
So the question is, are you going to miss the expansion capabilities, or not? That should be the deciding factor.

Max ram size for a quad core Mac pro tower?

I have a 4-Core, Xeon 3500 series, 3rd gen Mac pro tower with four DIMM slots and would like to know what is the largest size ram I can put in each slot and what is the best configuration for that ram? My main concern is maximizing the rendering speed of Final Cut Pro X and I have read that since it is a 64 bit program it can utilize much more ram than the previous version.
Can I get the benefit out of 8G sticks? Is it better to have the ram spread across multiple slots??
Thanks!

Andy Drefs wrote:
Just installed my 3 new 8G sticks and I see NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER!!!! And now suddenly the cooling fan has kicked in to overdrive and is buzzing away - this is such a great result of spending over $300! What a waste of $$$$$$
Sometimes when you change hardware configurations -- internal drives, dimms. video cards -- it may help to do a smc reset.
If adding memory didn't change your performance perhaps you should look at how much disk space you have for your boot drive or consider a ssd as a boot drive.

Is the new Core i7 MacBook Pro as fast as my quad core Mac Pro?

Hello,
I'm wondering if someone could advise me about the relative power of my current Mac Pro (2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 8GB RAM), and the new 17" MacBook Pro (2.66GHz Core i7 8GB RAM). Is there a website that details such comparisons?
The reason being that I'm thinking of exchanging my Mac Pro for a MacBook Pro, so that I would be able to have a more mobile system. If the processing speed, on tasks such as video encoding, was similar between these machines, then I am tempted.
Other than processing speed, I'm wondering if there would be any disadvantages to going ahead with this swap. One thing that comes to mind is that I would need to unplug a number of cables when taking the MacBook Pro on the road, but as I wouldn't be doing so a lot I don't see this as a particular issue. In terms of storage, I would be getting external enclosures to house the SATA drives currently in my Mac Pro and connecting them to the Macbook Pro through FireWire 800, which presumably means slower transfers between the drives, but again, this isn't a particular concern as transfer speeds would still be pretty fast.
My Mac Pro is connected to an Apple Cinema Display so obviously I would keep hold of that as a display for the MacBook Pro, and use my Apple keyboard/mouse as well.
Are there any other disadvantages that I haven't considered?
Thanks
Nick

OK. Here's some test results. The most intense process I use on my Macs is using Handbrake to encode either DVDs or mkv files to mp4 files which generally pushes all cores to the max. I am using the latest 64bit version of Handbrake on both Macs.
So I took a sample mkv file of 65 seconds length and ran it using the same settings on both the Mac Pro (2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 8GB RAM) and the Macbook Pro (2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 4GB RAM), straight after starting up both Macs so that there was plenty of RAM to spare on both. I ran the test two times on each Mac and got similar results both times, with the best results on each machine being as follows:
Mac Pro: max RAM used: 380MB, Time for encode: 102 seconds
Macbook Pro: max RAM used: 495MB, Time for encode: 84 seconds
This was for a 2-pass encoding with Turbo first pass to 2200kbps MP4 file from 720p mkv file.
So the Macbook Pro is coming in considerably quicker for this particular task. I'm not sure why the Mac Pro used less RAM, and whether this is the main factor in the time difference. Like I said, there was plenty of unused RAM on both Macs when I ran the test. I am no expert on the inner workings of Macs!
Needless to say though, I am happy with the results and very happy with the new Macbook Pro.
Nick

Mac Pro 2x2.8 quad will not power on unless I unplug, then plug-in power cable, why?

It is a 2x2.8 Quad Intel Mac pro, 8GB Ram, 8800 GT Video Card (running dual monitors), 10.6.8, Dual Internal HD (150/250), Single external HD (1TB), Dual Internal Burners (DVD - Stock/Blu-Ray - Pioneer), no PCIe cards installed.
I installed a brand new power supply thinking that was my issue, but it still does not power on after an extended period (1/2 hour or so) of being shut-off. It also at times will shut itself off after periods of inactivity even though it is set to never go to sleep, nor are the HD's set to sleep when possible.
One clue to give is that it IS set to restart after power failure. So when I go to press the button to turn the puter on and it is non-responsive, I then unplug and plug the power cable back in to the rear of the puter: it automatically starts-up as if there was a power failure.
The other possible clue I have is that my bluray burner is connected via SATA cable to one of the 2 open SATA connectors on the Motherboard. It only has issues when the hard drives ARE set to sleep when possible. When they are awoken, the drive is no longer listed as present. Meaning I cannot open the drive drawer. ;(
I am thoroughly upset about this.
Benjamin

It is a 2x2.8 Quad Intel Mac pro, 8GB Ram, 8800 GT Video Card (running dual monitors), 10.6.8, Dual Internal HD (150/250), Single external HD (1TB), Dual Internal Burners (DVD - Stock/Blu-Ray - Pioneer), no PCIe cards installed.
I installed a brand new power supply thinking that was my issue, but it still does not power on after an extended period (1/2 hour or so) of being shut-off. It also at times will shut itself off after periods of inactivity even though it is set to never go to sleep, nor are the HD's set to sleep when possible.
One clue to give is that it IS set to restart after power failure. So when I go to press the button to turn the puter on and it is non-responsive, I then unplug and plug the power cable back in to the rear of the puter: it automatically starts-up as if there was a power failure.
The other possible clue I have is that my bluray burner is connected via SATA cable to one of the 2 open SATA connectors on the Motherboard. It only has issues when the hard drives ARE set to sleep when possible. When they are awoken, the drive is no longer listed as present. Meaning I cannot open the drive drawer. ;(
I am thoroughly upset about this.
Benjamin

Mac Pro 2,8 QuadCore - MS Small Business Server 2008 Premium

Hello,
I want to do something little bit strange..
Is it possible to install/run SBS 2008 Premium incl. SQL Server 2008 on a 2010 Mac Pro?
I successfully installed this OS on a late 2009 Mac Mini (2,5 Ghz - 8 GB RAM - 200 GB SSD) and so far it works fine.. although I already installed it yesterday.
But.. I want a little bit more performance, so I want to use the Mac Pro (16 GB RAM - SSD). The plan is to install the SBS 2008 on a Boot Camp Partition and use the Mac Pro only as a Windows Server.
Does anybody have any experience with this?
Thanks a lot and greetings from Hamburg, Germany
Marco

Hi,
I just want to add what happened over the past few weeks.
Everything is fine!
Our SBS 2008 Server runs on a 2.8 Quad Core Mac Pro and everything seems to work correctly. What I didn't know before is that one can install an actual Windows-Version (not only Win7, but also SBS 2008) natively on a an 64-Bit Intel-Mac.
I formatted the drive as MBR (MasterBoot Record) and then did the normal installation process. During the install process I had to install the Ethernet-Driver manually for finishing the overall installation. After that there's only the installation for the BootCamp drivers left, which is important to use the correct driver for the graphics card, Apple keyboard and mouse etc.
Before that I've tested it with a 2009 MacMini and a Core i3 2010 iMac. And it worked, too. So, for the future I could only use Macs if I want to run Windows natively
In addition to the MacPro SBS 2008, I installed Windows 7 (32-Bit) natively on a 20" white iMac 2006, another license on a 2008 MacMini and a third license on a 2010 Core i3 iMac.
So far, everything is ok... love it
Marco

Using a 30" Cinema Display with new Mac Pro

Hello Everyone:
I just purchased, and waiting to arrive a new 2014 8 core Mac Pro which is an upgrade to my 2009 quad core Mac Pro. I currently use a 30 inch Apple Cinema display which has the DVI connection. I was thinking that I would use a DVI to HDMI adapter and plug the 30" into the HDMI port on the new Mac Pro. I have since heard that people have been having issues with this older monitor getting it to work properly with the new mac pro. some have suggested buy the $99 mini display port to DVI adapter and using that, but I don't believe there is a mini display port on the new mac pro.
I have considered buying a new thunderbolt display because I am assuming that it will have a much better image quality than the older 30 in display but I hate the fact that it's a 27" and I would be giving up the 3" in size. I do a lot of video and audio recording editing and love the extra screen real-estate. Can anyone confirm a couple of things for me?
1. Will the 30 inch display work with a new mac pro and can I use the DVI to HDMI adapter?
2. Does the new Thunderbolt display have a much better image quality than the 30 in display and because its newer, will look that much better with the mach pro?
Thank you in advance.

1. Will the 30 inch display work with a new Mac Pro?
Yes.
Can I use the DVI to HDMI adapter?
Not if you want full resolution. You need a Mini DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter
<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A/mini-displayport-to-dual-link-dvi-ada pter>
It plugs into a Thunderbolt port (and USB port) on the computer.
2. Does the new Thunderbolt display have a much better image quality than the 30 in display and because its newer, will look that much better with the Mac Pro?
No, it has more pixels (in the vertical direction), but they are spaced a bit more apart, so you don't want to be as close to the display.

New Mac Pro - some questions about setup and RAM

After debating between iMac and Mac Pro, I decided on a refurb SINGLE 2.8 quad-core Mac Pro.
Somewhere in these discussions (can't find it now) I thought I saw recommendations to zero out the hard drive and re-install the system when it arrives. Is this necessary?
Also, I plan to use the single processor savings to buy RAM. When I go to the Crucial site, they have a choice of RAM for 4-core or 8-core. Mine is only 4-core, but would I choose the 8-core option to get the correct RAM for 2008 models?
In general, when it comes to buying and installing RAM, should I follow the 8-core directions? Will having a single processor change anything to do with upgrades or expansion?
Thanks. Hope I didn't ask too much in one post.

Somewhere in these discussions (can't find it now) I thought I saw recommendations to zero out the hard drive and re-install the system when it arrives. Is this necessary?
No, that really isn't necessary. If you were prepping a new bare drive that had never been used or you were installing OS X on a drive that had once been used for Windows, then zeroing the drive is quite appropriate.
All the Mac Pros use the same type of RAM. The Late 2008 models use the faster PC2-6400 800 MHz RAM, but the other specs are the same - ECC, Fully buffered, heat sink. The RAM and installation is the same regardless of cores.
RAM should be installed minimally in matched pairs, optimally in matched quads. The following illustrations show how it should be installed:
Mac Pro memory arrangement photos
Mac Pro Memory Configuration

Need to run 3 DVI Displays from my Mac Pro

Hello,
I have a 30 inch Display (the first gen, with the DVI connector), an old 23 inch Cinema Display (easel stand), and a 17 inch flat screen display (easel stand). I'd like to hook up all 3 to a Mac Pro. Does anyone have an idea of what graphic cards I might need to do this? I'm currently running all 3 displays on my G5, but I assume those graphic cards won't work in a Mac Pro. Thanks very much.

Well, I guess, you’re talking about one of the the 2009 Quad-Core Mac Pro’s...?
This one comes with the NVIDIA GT 120... (One Mini Display Port / One DVI Port...)
The same applies to the ATI Radeon HD 4870... BTO option...
To connect a 17-, 20- or 23-inch Display to one of the Mini Display Ports you might need the
“Mini Display Port to DVI Adapter”:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4MzU1NTE
To connect a 30-inch Display to one of the Mini Display Ports you might need the
“Mini Display Port to Dual-Link DVI Adapter”:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4MzU1ODY
Otherwise use the EVGA GTX 285 Mac Edition...
This one comes with “Two Dual-Link DVI Ports...
In any case, one needs Two Graphic Cards to connect Three or Four Displays...
Be aware, one can install either the HD 4870 or GTX 285, both have Two auxiliary power cables...
The GT 120 doesn't have those cables...
Regards
Nolan

Can I use a bluetooth keyboard on a non-bluetooth enabled (Old)Mac Pro?

Sorry, this seems like something I could easily find an answer to, but I haven't found the answer on the forums or in google searches.
My quad core Mac Pro is not Bluetooth enabled. I'm assuming I can just use a USB Bluetooth dongle to talk to the keyboard. I thought I would double check before I start spending money. I do have a Belkin Bluetooth dongle already, but I've seen some talk about some talk about some other options from the Mac Store. I'm just hoping to hear what has worked for others.
Thanks!

At Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Targus-USB-Bluetooth®-Adapter-ACB10US/dp/B0002K6RK0/ref=sr _1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407538734&sr=8-2&keywords=bluetooth++dongle+mac+osx
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Bluetooth-Wireless-Adapter-BT-USBX/dp/B006ZZKPY0/r ef=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1407538972&sr=8-4&keywords=bluetooth++dongle+mac+osx
work fine Amazon says.
Or get Apple bluetooth module at eBay.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=bluetooth+adapter+for+mac+pro&_osacat=0&_fr om=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbluetooth+module+for+mac+pro&_nk w=bluetooth+module+for+mac+pro&_sacat=0
Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info... > System Report... > Bluetooth says bluetooth is detected, it mean bluetooth dongle is woking with system bluetooth driver.

A brand new Mac Pro doesn't wake up from sleep

I got a new Mac Pro.
It has an external SATA controller and a video card with NVIDIA Quadro 4000 chipset on it.
It has a Snow Leopard installed.
The problem it has is that it doesn't wake up once it goes to sleep, either by choosing "Sleep" menu item or by using "Energy Saving" setting.
I notice some people mention a keyboard doesn't respond while his trackpad does. In my case, nothing works.
I don't know if it is due to keyboard or a magic mouse. I tried to connect another wired mouse to the enclosure of the Mac Pro directly, but it did't cause Mac Pro wake up.
By searching on Google, many people seem to have this problem, whether they have Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and so on.
Personally, I have a 17" PPC iMac, 13" MacBook with Core Duo 2, and have used MacBook Pro 17", but they didn't have this problem.
I tried to reset the SMC, but it didn't help.
Do anyone know what cause this problem and how to solve it?
Is there any patch for this?
Thank you.

Does it sound like it's waking up but the monitor just doesn't display anything?
I ask because if so, I'm experiencing the same problem. I have a Quad-Core Mac Pro (no external devices) and if it goes to sleep I have difficulty getting it to display anything on the monitor after waking it up. Now, I just recently hooked up an additional monitor (VGA) for dual display, and the funny thing is, that monitor will wake, but my main monitor won't.
Sometimes I get this error after boot-up too, where the computer will get to the login screen, but my main monitor is receiving no signal ("at least according to my monitor").
If that's the same issue, then I'll post any success I find for you!
Best,
J

"system overload" in logic pro 8 on my Mac Pro with only three tracks

I am running Logic Pro 8, on a 2.66 Quad Core Mac Pro w/ only 1GB of RAM. I have not had the money for the much needed ram upgrade, yet.
The day before yesterday I opened a project I had opened many times, with only three tracks - two audio and a midi synth with only a few notes. These tracks are fairly well plugin-ed up, but this Mac Pro has always eaten them up, no problems. When I tried to play the project, I got system overloads every 2 seconds, rather precisely actually. My CPU usage reads low in logic and with iStat, but suddenly it peaks to 100% on my third core and I get the system overload.
I had my buffer size at 128, so I switched it to 1024, it worked, and then I switched it back again and everything worked like it used to!
But now I have to go through this slightly illogical little procedure everytime I open a project. I have read threads here about this subject before, back I cant seem to apply them / understand them in relation to my particular situation.
any ideas?

Join the club...wait for them to patch/update it.
I've tried the various work arounds, sometimes they work temporarily, sometimes not at all.
For the overloads the most reliable "work around" is to select each track, open the VI/FX modules associated with that track, then close them, go to the next track and repeat the process. OR, if you know all the modules (VI/FX) you're using, just open each one. This will "initialize" their existance BEFORE the audio engine hits them in playback.
My guess is LP8 tries to reduce it's memory foot print and does NOT initialize all the VI/FX in a saved project that is just opened until it actually needs to use them -- a good idea one would think. However, when you do your playback and it hits the VI/FX for the first time (after you just opened your saved project) it appears the audio engine stalls waiting for the VI/FX to initialize the 1st time around and hence the overloads error. Obviously I can't prove this since I don't have access to the code, but I'm a developer and this would be my logical guess based on the evidence at hand.
I can reproduce the problem consistently:
1. Start LP8
2. Open existing project with 3 tracks (staggered to start a different times) with different VI on each track
3. Have 3 buses with a different FX on each bus
4. Do nothing other than hit Play
Overload when it hits start of 1st track VI, stop, restart, overloads when it hits start point of 2nd track VI, stop restart, overloads when it hits start point of 3rd track.
Why wasn't something this obvious caught in testing? Good question.
Rob.
Message was edited by: Rob A.

Mac Pro Possessed

I have a Dual 2.26 Quad-Core Mac Pro. It has 6 Gigs of factory RAM and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics card and is running OS 10.5.8. The computer’s primary use is for editing on Final Cut Pro (v 7.0.2), but it does serve day-to-day purposes as well.
Everything that can go wrong with it has and endless attempts at fixes, at best, only temporarily fix the system. There have been so many issues and so many approaches to finding the cause(s) that I’m afraid this will be a pretty long posting and I’ll still forget some things. Please bear with me. If you like a challenge, I’m your man.
I got this Mac on 10/2/09. We (Any time I write ‘we,’ I am referring to a highly-qualified Mac technician who has done much of the heavy lifting throughout this process; I think he now wants to become a farmer) copied a lot of files from my previous G5 (running OS 10.4.11), but did a new clean install of Final Cut Suite and of any other apps. We also installed 3 1-TB Samsung HE103UJ internal drives in bays 2, 3 & 4 in a RAID using SoftRAID software v.3.6.8. Gorgeous. I’ve got the best computer in the world. Ha.
On 10/6, I launch and get a SoftRAID Disk Error message telling me that one of the RAIDed partitions encountered a read error. This message will continue from time to time throughout my trials, but, until the last few days, we’ve never detected any actual problems with these drives and no tests run on them could find any performance issues.
On 10/9 “Final Cut Pro quit unexpectedly. The problem may have been caused by the KGCore plug-in.” This seems to be a known problem (http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/976905), which will continue to pop up from time to time, but otherwise, things are running well.
11/17, I finish one job and take over an existing Final Cut project. There are 4.5 TB of media spread over six 1-TB drives (eventually this will grow to 7 drives) daisy-chained via short firewire 800 cables to my CPU. From this point on in the narrative, my internal drives will not be used for media at all. I will continue occasionally to get read error messages from SoftRAID, but I detect no actual problem and all three of those drives are sitting idle anyway.
Lot’s of technical problems start to occur now, but many of them have to do internally within the project (I would elaborate, but I’ve looked ahead and this sucker’s going to be long enough without side issues). One issue I do address is in early January, I add an additional card to my Mac to provide more firewire 800 ports. I now have six of the external drives each plugged into their own port and only one drive piggybacking on one of the others. I see no real improvement, but still, I attribute my crashes to FCP project issues.
Then in April I start crashing and freezing. All. The. Time. Endlessly. Throughout all of this, btw, I am regularly trashing permissions, caches and temporary files; repairing permissions; trashing FCP preferences; running Disk Utility and Disk Warrior and Compressor Repair (http://www.digitalrebellion.com/compressor_repair.htm). My tech finally suggests we clear the internal RAIDed drives so we can reformat them not as a RAID and then do a fresh install of the OS on one of them and install Final Cut there in its own little isolated world. On 4/22, we do all this. That drive (just to confuse things) is called ‘Final Cut.’ The only third-party drivers running from here on out are SoftRAID’s and Kensington Mouseworks.
I sometimes have to make several attempts to get FCP to launch, but it seems fairly stable for a few days other than it’s lagging something terrible. I’ll do some extremely basic action —loading a clip into the viewer for example— and I’ll get the beach ball for 5-10 seconds. Sometimes when this occurs there appears to be no activity on the external drives (that is, the lights aren’t flashing).
4/27, This is when things start to become really inconsistent. I pull all drives and launch FCP without any media connected. It appears to run fine. No lags, no crashes. I quit and remount just two of the media drives, each into a native fw 800 port. Restart FCP. At first it lags when I’m rolling over media from one of these two drives, then after a while it quits lagging. I quit app, restart; everything runs fine. I let it sit while I write an email, return and now it lags when rolling over media from the one drive. Then it gets over it again and runs fine.
I reboot from my other startup drive and get a SoftRAID error. It is not on the Final Cut startup drive, but one I’m not actually using now. I reboot from the Final Cut drive and get the same SoftRAID error message (I may not have cleared the error messages in SoftRAID; can’t recall). I eject the two internal drives I’m not using.
I swap the firewire cables for the two drives I’ve been testing and launch FCP. Seems to run fine. Quit and attempt to remount all 7 drives. One won’t mount. This is new. Launched Disc Utility and it hung trying to find the drives. Forced Quit while it was still looking. Tried to restart the Mac, but it hung up on shutdown. Forced shutdown from power button, powered down drives.
Powered up. Launched FCP. Ran fine for a while then encountered occasional lags. Sometimes the problem drive from earlier flickers during these hang-ups and sometimes none of the drives do.([I realize, in the history of computing, ‘occasional hang ups’ would not be considered an issue, but on the original boot drive, the app either crashed or it didn’t; when it ran, it ran immediately.)
Had to go back to the other startup drive for something. Came back, relaunched FCP. Had a small sequence (2:44) in timeline, hit play, it hung up. First one drive flickered then several other drives in turn. Some of them had no media in this sequence. Eventually it settled down. Everything feels very unstable.
Ran Disk Utility and Disk Warrior. The iffy drive’s directory was only slightly off, less than 5%.
4/28, While reading an email, with nothing going on in the background, I got a SoftRAID read error. That drive holds only files for apps that weren’t running at the time. Since these drives are no longer RAIDed, I can isolate which drive is having problems. It’s ‘Media 1’ in Bay 2. I quit FCP and it crashes on shutdown. I’ve now got a great app called FCS Maintenance Pack (http://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcs_maintenance.htm), which includes a Crash Analyzer. It suggests this crash was caused by Qmaster.
4/30, Since the main issue now seems to be hang time. We decide to install a couple of eSATA cards. I plug four of the seven drives into eSATA ports and now have just 3 drives running each to their own firewire 800. Possibly a marginal improvement, but probably not.
5/3 We run some speed tests and the external drive that was acting up earlier is pretty slow. Turns out it was very fragmented. We defrag and things look better. Much better, in fact. For an entire day. It runs so well that I decide, on 5/4, to run Compressor on a ninety minute show to see if I’ve got an any performance improvements (I decided to not an entire Compressor/Qmaster conversation here). Compression was much faster. Then, not immediately, but shortly thereafter, I had a panic crash where the screen comes up in several languages telling you to shut down from the power button. I restarted the computer to make sure it would start up and then quit for the day.
5/6-7. Today, it was very difficult to get the computer to start. As best I can recall, it would stop halfway into the startup screen and I would have to power down at the CPU and start over. Eventually it got up and after trashing some preferences seemed to run OK. Today and tomorrow everything works perfectly. No drive issues, no lag, no SoftRAID error messages. My computer works exactly the way I would expect the biggest, baddest Mac on the market should. I take the weekend off.
Monday 5/10/10, Early in the day, I get this error message: “The device you removed was not properly put away. Data might have been lost or damaged. Before you unplug your device, you must first select its icon in the Finder and choose Eject from the File menu.”
I haven’t pulled anything, nor do I see any drives missing from the desktop. Something could have gone offline for an instant and then back on without me spotting it, but I can’t find any evidence. This has happened a few times over the past week or so (forgot to include above and I can’t say exactly when it started). At least once when this message came up it locked up Final Cut. Still, everything runs well today. Tomorrow I’ll only make modest use of the computer and not run FCP at all.
Wednesday, 5/12/10, FCP starts to hang up again. I run speed tests on the drives and one of them — not the one I recently defragged — just hangs during what should be a quick test. I eject and remount the drive and it gives me decent — not great — performance numbers. I go back to work. The rest of the day is rough with lots of lagging. Then, in the early evening, shortly after I’ve run Disk Warrior and Disk Utility, I’m playing a sequence and I hit the pause button and it doesn’t pause. Typically, in FCP, if it crashes, it crashes, everything stops. Not this time. I think my keyboard has become disconnected. I crawl under my desk and fiddle with the USB connector and when I come back up, my screens (I have two) were all messy, like acne, like snow, like nuclear rain. Scattered pixels over the app’s windows and over the desktop were screwy.
Eventually FCP crashed (Crash Analyzer just said it was caused by an unknown error) and I was able to regain control of the computer. I would like to quit for the evening and start drinking, but I’ve got to get out a DVD of my project. I eventually successfully export a QuickTime Reference file from Final Cut and then successfully compress it in Compressor. I then eject all the external drives. The QuickTime is on “Media 1,” which is one of the three internal 1-TB Samsung drives.
I start the build in DVD Studio Pro. It gets all the way to the end, hangs on 'Completed,' and then I get the "…device you removed was not properly put away…" message. Now I can't swear that one of the drive icons didn't blink off for a moment, but they were all there when I looked. But when I opened Media 1 all the folders in it appeared to be empty.
A restart brings all that info back. I check Console for the moment of the incident and, sure enough, it indicates “disk4: media is not present.” I think this is referring to “Media 1,” but I can’t find in Disk Utility or SoftRAID a reference to disk4 so I’m not sure.
5/13/10, I’m crashing all day long. Crash Analyzer, variously says the problems are caused by my graphics card, a corrupt project file, some inappropriate media in the project, corrupt audio files or a problematic QuickTime component. There were also some force-quits, which don’t generate a report. Now, I’m pretty impressed with this analytic software overall, but I think I’ve overwhelmed it. I don’t honestly think it’s a different one of these things each time I crash.
I run Apple Hardware Diagnostics from the install CD and it finds nothing wrong.
5/14/10, Today I start a crash journal. The remainder of this history is pasted from it.
I wish I had started this when the problems started. We now join our story already in progress.
5/14/10, 2:45 FC Drive
Pulled “Media 1,” which appeared to be the source of the SoftRAID errors, from computer then relaunched and started FCP. Played OK for a few minutes then started displaying pink or green frames. Then it hung for a while. I did other things for a few minutes. Returned and now it played, but with HUGE pixilation and loud audio static. Then hung up. I'm now hoping it will crash — which will generate a Crash Report in Crash Analyzer — instead of having to force quit — which won't generate a report.
3:05
Forced quit CompressorTranscoder and CompressorController from the Activity Monitor. No affect. Forced quit all Compressor and Qmaster related processes. No effect. Finally forced quit FCP.
3:09
Launched Disk Utility and as it displayed drives, I got the "…the device you removed was not properly put away" message. All drives appear on the desktop, but “Deception” (one of the external eSATA-connected drives) doesn't show in Disk Utility. Here are a few lines from the Console for that moment (bolding mine):
May 14 15:08:54 martin-nelsons-mac-pro Disk Utility[364]: Disk Utility started.
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro kernel[0]: Failed to issue COM RESET successfully after 3 attempts. Failing...
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro kernel[0]: IOBlockStorageDriver[IOBlockStorageDriver]; executeRequest: request failed to start!
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro kernel[0]: IOBlockStorageDriver[IOdisBlk8s3:ock Stresourceor agshoeDriverrt];age ex.
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro kernel[0]: ecuteRequest: request failed to start!
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro mds[80]: (/Volumes/ Deception /.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/FEE1E744-878D-4219-9CEF-A037A6F8F98D)(Error) IndexCI in ci_ftruncate:ftruncate(53 /Volumes/Deception/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/FEE1E744-878D-4219-9CEF-A037 A6F8F98D/live.2.indexPostings, 4096) error:22
And then farther down:
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro kernel[0]: disk8s3: media is not present.
May 14 15:09:00 martin-nelsons-mac-pro kernel[0]:
May 14 15:09:00: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Etc.
When I clicked on “Deception” in a Finder window, Finder quit responding. Quit all open apps and tried to do a force relaunch of Finder. Desktop cleared and then everything hung there. Chose Shut Down from the Apple pulldown menu. Menu went away leaving only the desktop image with no icons on it, but it didn't shut down. Forced shutdown from the CPU 3:31
Powered off all external drives. Restarted. Accidentally in other startup disc. Restart again on FC drive. Can't find any reference in SoftRAID, Disk Utility or System Profiler to disk8s3 (from Console text above). Mounted Deception and still couldn't find a reference. 3:59
4:03, Decided to verify “Deception” using Disk Utility. It's predicting it will take 28 minutes. Should take about 20 seconds. I verified all drives including this one yesterday and found no problems. Also ran Disk Warrior and found it less than 10% (maybe much less; don't remember) out of order.
Meanwhile, Disk Utility seems to have stopped progressing. Activity Monitor doesn't suggest it's hanging up, but there's no movement in Real or Virtual Memory usage and in Disk Utility nothing happening in the progress bar. I stopped verify and started it again. It makes a quick run to Checking volume bitmap and then again says Estimated time: 28 minutes. That's just crazy. 4:14, I'm gonna ignore it for a while and see if there's any progress. 4:22, Finished running finally. “Deception appears to be OK.”
Launch Disk Warrior. Deception is 8% out of order. Try to rebuild, but am told it's in use. Quit all apps including DW. Restart DW. Deception is sill supposedly in use. Restart computer. This takes forever. Launch DW and attempt to rebuild Deception's directory. I get a disk malfunction error and am told to backup my data from the preview disk
I've got a spare drive. Guess I'll start copying.
4:54 Started copying 931 GB
This ends up taking a couple of days, which gives me time to write this novel.
5/16, After copying. My tech guy wants me to run TechTools v3.1.3. It hangs up trying to find volumes. I have to force quit. I then try to shut down, but ultimately have to do it from the CPU. I power off all external drives and restart. It won’t restart. I power down from the CPU and start again. This time after 10 minutes or so it starts. I think it might be a good idea to restart. It shuts down, but won’t restart. I launch from my other startup disk. This works fine. I run Disk Utility and Disk Warrior on the “Final Cut” startup disk. It finds no problems and only minor directory issues. I rebuild the directory anyway.
I restart in “Final Cut” drive and rebuild its permissions. Launch TechTools and it scans volumes quickly. It’s now running. It’s now done. It finds nothing.
More general notes:
The system log has hundreds of pages of this error:
May 13 16:55:23 martin-nelsons-mac-pro [0x0-0x105105].com.apple.FinalCutPro[1676]: Final Cut Pro(1676,0xa02aa720) malloc: * mmap(size=268439552) failed (error code=12)
May 13 16:55:23 martin-nelsons-mac-pro [0x0-0x105105].com.apple.FinalCutPro[1676]: * error: can't allocate region
May 13 16:55:23 martin-nelsons-mac-pro [0x0-0x105105].com.apple.FinalCutPro[1676]: * set a breakpoint in mallocerrorbreak to debug
May 13 16:55:23 martin-nelsons-mac-pro [0x0-0x105105].com.apple.FinalCutPro[1676]: Final Cut Pro(1676,0xa02aa720) malloc: * mmap(size=268439552) failed (error code=12)
May 13 16:55:23 martin-nelsons-mac-pro [0x0-0x105105].com.apple.FinalCutPro[1676]: * error: can't allocate region
There were major crashes at various points when all of the firewire drives were offline and other times when they were online and two of the three extra internal drives were offline. The “Final Cut” drive, which is one of the internal, aftermarket 1TB drives and is serving as the startup drive when working in Final Cut Pro, was, of course, online.
There have been numerous times in the last few weeks when I have not been able to successfully turn on the computer on the first try —it gets partway launched then hangs, forcing me to hit the power button— or turn off the computer without resorting to hitting the power button on the CPU.
Possible fixes:
We’ve removed the one drive flagged by Softraid for errors, Media 1. And I’m replacing the second drive that appears damaged, Deception. Can the problem be further disk errors or driver conflicts? Most of my external drives are Lacie 1TB disks, formatted with the Lacie utility in Mac OS Extended format with the Apple Partition Map. The two remaining internal Samsung drives are formatted with SoftRAID as single disks, in Mac OS Extended format with GUID partition scheme and block sizes optimized for digital video. Memory was tested with “memtest.”
Could it be bad RAM? We have the stock 6GB that came with the system. Could replacing it with 16GB of new RAM possibly fix it?
Is it a bad video card, processor, or motherboard problem? The pervasiveness of the problem makes me think it is a hardware issue, not software.
I’d like to test the drives with a second Mac Pro, but I have none available.
Would downgrading Final Cut Studio and removing one of the Pro Applications Updates possibly help?
Well, I'm exhausted. I wonder if anyone made it to the end. If you have any ideas I would be eternally grateful. I'm tapped.
Martin

Most likely culprit is your Lacie drives which are notorious for flaky power supplies which cause just the sort of erratic behaviour that you describe. Have had similar issues myself. Lacie has been good about replacing my power converter-- twice. If you have seven of them, good luck finding the bad one or more. Like I said, the behaviour is erratic. Sometimes it'll work sometimes not. I can't comment on Samsung drives because I've never used them and have never heard anything about them. Same with Softraid. Why not just use Disk Utility. Sounds like you're ready for an external hardware raid. This will be much faster, much more reliable, and may even be cheaper than seven firewire drives. Check out G Tech, and Maxx Digital for starters.
Best of luck
Terry

G5 Quad or Mac Pro?

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