Mac Pro / System Gets "Choppy" / File Goes Missing

Question

Hi all,
I recently got a Mac Pro Quad-Core ($2,499 stock model) MB871LL1/A. I am using a Microsoft Intellimouse Optical and MS Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 that did not come with the system itself that has never given me problems before.
For the first few nights, everything seemed fine with the included iLife apps (such as iMovie, iDVD, etc)
I later received the Final Cut Studio 3 Upgrade last night, so I installed and started experimenting with applications. Namely. FCP and Motion. Earlier projects were updated and saved and rendered speedy and normal.
Two things happened while rendering a NEW project with either Motion 4 itself as well as Compressor 3.5:
ISSUES:
1. Mouse movement became extremely erratic, and the cursor would jump across the screen instantaneously. I couldn't control the mouse at all. Every movement would cause the cursor to jump around erratically. It felt like someone may have been sabotaging the mouse movement! I turned Bluetooth off as well as disconnected my LAN cable just to be sure. Still happening.
2. System 'responsiveness' became very choppy, and in some cases would remain that way after closing the apps (though not always).
3. I rebooted my system and reloaded my project. The project used just one font (Garamond). Motion reported that the font was missing - I checked with Font Book as well as the /Fonts directory itself and Garamond was indeed erased from the system.
SOLUTIONS?
I tried using "Rember" (freeware memtest app) and RAM checked out fine. Disk Utility reported the disk was fine.
I may consider re installing everything before my Genius Bar appointment (next available is "Tuesday 9:15am" at my nearest store), and I'd like to think that it's just this project file causing the problem (it's basically one Camera that dollies forward through four words in 3d space, pretty simple). However I want to prevent this from happening again and I'm worried there might be something wonky in the hardware on my Mac.
I know this is all very strange, but has anyone heard of an issue like this or might know why that was happening?

Answer 1

Jumpy mice gets mentioned, some attribute it to video problems I think.
I assume you have the latest MS Optical driver.
Always clone a system before installing apps or updates so you have a backup you can boot from.
Don't rely on just Apple DU First Aid. Time to invest in 3rd party, though if you plan on jumping to Snow immediately might want to wait on that.
You may find 3GB RAM is just not going to cut it though, that is extremely minimum and base system, not what you want for what you are doing. With quad 4-dimm setup, I'd look at either 4 x 2GB or 3 x 4GB to give you 8-12GB RAM. 3 x 2GB should be minimum (unless just using it for email and web).
Also, optimize your files and storage if you haven't: boot drive, editing and scratch, media files on 3rd drive, maybe setup 2-3 drive RAID at some point.
Lot of adjusting and changes that go along with any new system regardless of what you ran before.