Importing Tiffs - FCP unexpectedly quits

Question

I have been importing tiffs at 100 dpi and 1000 pixels (either landscape or portrait depending on orientation). Every time I load into the Viewer, FCP either unexpectedly quits or I get the gray screen of death.
I have tried different formats (png, jpeg). I have tried different sizes (40 dpi, 72 dpi). They are definitely RGB because they are screen caps. We just installed more RAM, going from 1.5 Gig to 2.5 Gig. The only thing that works is 72 dpi and fitting to screen (either 720 wide or 540 high).
What could the cause of this be? Has anyone else had this problem? Do I need more RAM?
Dual 2G PowerPC G5   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   FCP 4.5 HD

Answer 1

I don't care what your IT people think as ALL the general computing IT people I've ever dealt with (and I have dealt with A LOT) don't have the imagination to really understand what is going on in a graphics driven computing environment.
sooooo,
TAKE OUT THE RAM and try again. If it still crashes the IT guys might be right, if it works, you can lord it over them until the the cowboys win the superbowl again .... (which will be a very, very long time!)
keep at it!
x
edit: I really am this grumpy but I will explain: when you use images, you are likely pushing into realms of your new ram that other applications do not require and therefor will not access. This is the simplistic explanation of why FCP may crash while other progams seem to run unaffected. Launch Activity Monitor and examine how much ram is being used, how many page swaps are taking place, etc to get a feel for the relative demands of each application.
IT people often do not understand Photoshop, FCP, AE etc system requirements. They really have no clue as to the demanding nature of image manipulation and the amount of RAM necessary to serve the application(s). Do you have more than one open at the same time?