IMovie 4 black screen

I have a 17" PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz running OS X 10.4.11.
I have iMovie 4.0.1. When I open it, the main window appears for a few seconds and then the entire screen goes black except for the pointer. I can command-tab to switch programs, but only the menu bar of another program is shown. If I activate Exposé I can see the iMovie window and if I position my pointer strategically can still interact with iMovie, even though the screen remains black. Quitting iMovie returns the screen to normal. Can anyone think of an explanation or possible solution for this problem?

Hi
This seems to be a very strange problem. Can only share some thoughts.
• Free space on internal/Start-up hadr disk ? How much ?
• Have You done all normal trouble shooting things as
Deleted iMovie pref file
Repaired Permissions (Disk Util tool)
Repaired Hard Disk (Same tool but needs to start Mac from DVD or external hard disk)
• Does iMovie 4 - really run under Mac OS X.4 ? (I run Max OS X.3.9 on my PB G4 1.5GHz)
• Re-installed iMovie 4
Else see my list
*Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows.*
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Delete iMovie pref file
iMovie pref file resides.
Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
and is named. (one or more of these)
com.apple.iMovie.plist
com.apple.iMovie3.plist
com.apple.iMovie7.plist
com.apple.iMovie8.plist
and find
com.apple.iApps.plist
While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this/these file/s out to desk-top.
Now restart iMovie.
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Garageband-fix. Start it, Play a note and Close it. Re-try (Corrects an audio problem that hinders iMovie)
• Screen must be set to Million-colors
• Turn off Mac and disconnect Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes - will at least re-set FW-port
• Third party plug-ins that doesn't work OK (not relevant for iMovie’08 or 09)
• Problems in iPhoto Library can affect iMovie to crash on start-up. Re-build this first then try to re-start iMovie.
This You do by
_ close iPhoto
_ on start up of iPhoto - Keep {cmd and alt-keys down}
_ now select all five options presented
_ WAIT a long long time
• iMovie updated ?
• QuickTime updated ?
• Mac OS version ?
• Program miss-match. iMovie 4 - will not work under Mac OS X.5 Leopard
• Program miss-match. iMovie 5.0.2, up to Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK
• Program miss-match. iMovie 6.0.3 or 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’08 v. 7.1.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’09 v. 8.0.6, Mac OS X.5.8 AND QuickTime 7.6.4 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
From LKN 1935. (in this case = iMovie HD (5), I tried it all, but nothing worked.
Your answer (above) has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that
there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled
iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos)
to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before.
Lennart Thelander
I run "Cache Out X", clear out all caches and restarts the Mac.
Yours Bengt W

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Message was edited by: CrazyDaze
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