Premiere Pro CS5.0.4 -Will not play any video- reinstall didn't help

Question

here's my system info -
Model: MacPro5,1, BootROM MP51.007F.B03, 4 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 3.2 GHz, 16 GB, SMC 1.39f11
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870, ATI Radeon HD 5870, PCIe, 1024 MB
   ----------------I only use one monitor, 1920x1200, 32bit color depth
   ------------------No Capture Card, No Sound Card or I/O box
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x8E), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0
Bluetooth: Version 2.4.5f3, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH61N
Serial ATA Device: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-222AL
Serial ATA Device: Hitachi HDS722020ALA330, 1.82 TB
  ----------  This  2tb Hitachi is my data drive -  there are 600GB free (33%)
Serial ATA Device: OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD, 223.57 GB
   ---------This 250gb SSD drive is my system/application drive - 120GB free (50%)
Serial ATA Device: OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD, 111.79 GB
------------this 125GB SSD  I use as a project-specific drive to serve up video very quickly when i'm generating Video material using the software VDMX
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x1006, 0xfd300000 / 2
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x0220, 0xfd320000 / 3
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c  (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x5a100000 / 2
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8215, 0x5a110000 / 3
FireWire Device: built-in_hub, Up to 800 Mb/sec
  i've been using Premiere Pro for about a year and a half with no trouble, no crashes that i can remember.   I updated to 5.0.4 when it came out and experienced no problems.
I have not made any changes to my system (drivers, programs, etc.) since the last time i worked with Premiere Pro with no trouble.  The only  difference is that i generated approx. 52GB of new video files (mov. uncompressed 32bit 640x480 resolution) that i was beginning to edit in to a music video.
My current problem is:: there is absolutely no playback of video in 5.0.4.   not in the tiny project window preview,  not in the source preview, and not in the timeline/canvas window.   when i push PLAY, the button turns into a square STOP button, but nothing happens.   this is independent of project or file type.  The project i was working on when playback stopped is using uncompressed 640x480 32bit Quicktime files and one 44khz/16bit .AIFF file.   as a quick doublecheck, I just added a 640x480 Apple Intermediate Codec file and it also will not play back.   I opened older projects and none of them will playback.
My problem started while i was working on a project.  I was working on the project for probably an hour and a half with no trouble.  Then it seemed to get a bit sluggish and i could hear the HD churning a little more.   After rendering out a short section (just under 10 seconds), PPro did not play back the just rendered (now greenline) section.  Immediate playback of rendered material was the default behavior, and this was the first time ever that the just rendered section did not play back.   I then discovered that no video would play back at all--in any of the windows.   I can scrub through all the video without any trouble--all the frames are there.  
I shut down PPro, & restarted.  No change.   I restarted my computer.  No change. 
Realizing that the problem was likely related to a lack of space on my data drive,  i deleted approx. 500GB of files off my 2 TB drive, leaving just under a 1/3 of it free.  i checked the drive for errors, and defragmented it.  Premiere Pro still wouldn't play any file from any project.
The files are fine, they will playback anywhere else (several different file types involved in different projects).  The files are compatible with Premiere Pro (uncompressed VGA resolution Quicktime .mov), i was editing on the timeline with them for hours before all video playback stopped.   All other Adobe programs  (After Effects, Photoshop work fine).
I tried to find an answer/solution on these forums, unsuccessfully.   After uninstalling PPro and reinstall (did not help), and entire Suite uninstall, Adobe Clean, and reinstall,  neither version 5.0.0 or 5.0.4 will play video --the no playback problem has persisted.
I was running out of HD space --i had less room than i thought -- down to about 7% of free space, a bone-headed move on my part.  I'm not  surprised that playback performance got compromised due to lack of space.   But i'm shocked that the problem is persisting.   Fortunately, i had just backed up my entire system the day before.  (i've backed up many times before and this never affected PPro performance)
i tried to "CLEAN" the media cache for the sequence but it had no effect  (in searching the forums, i saw somebody else have their 'crashing Premiere Pro' problem solved by hitting this button).  I just took a look in the user/application support/adobe/common/5.0 to look at the "Media Cache" folder and the "Media Cache Files" folder.   Neither of them are empty, even after hitting the CLEAN cache button in the main preferences 'Media' settings window.   I don't know if this is the correct behavior or not.   (i'd expect a "clean" command to empty the folder, but i'm not the programmer)
This does not appear to be the ATI/5.0 problem that so many Mac users suffered (i was lucky to never have that problem).    Again, i've never had any problems with Premiere Pro over the last year and a half, until working on this latest project with the Hard Drive very low on space.   I'm 99.9% positive that's at the heart of the issue.
I don't understand why a clean reinstall did not help in this regard.  The problem is clearly PPro specific.   I found one topic in the forum where someone else experienced this same "no video playback" problem, but there was never follow-up from the user saying whether or not his problem was solved (or what was done to correct the problem).
I'd love to get some help--- seems to be a very rare issue, but right now, i can do no video editing.  btw,  i started a new project as well and imported a .mov file -- same problem, no video playback.
the weird thing is that i can actually still edit video.  i just rearranged my timeline assets and rendered out a minute-long quicktime (Apple Intermediate Codec) .mov and it looks and plays as it should.    This is really weird.  I'm baffled -- there must be some way to fix this.   I don't want to have to go back to Final Cut,  certainly not when i've already paid for Create Suite 5 Production Premium and EVERYTHING works except for video playback in PrPro.
thanks in advance for your help
Message was edited by: magneticjak
Message was edited by: magneticjak

Answer 1

hello.   hey, thanks very much for writing back.  i got some good info with a search or two.  (info about what regedit is and what corresponds to it in OS X -- regedit allows you to edit "preference" keys for individual programs,  OSX's equivalent for these keys are the .plists in User & System: Preferences and Application Support)
what i ended up doing was uninstalling Premiere Pro (not the suite, just PPro).   Then i deleted a few preference files:
from User /Preferences/Adobe:
com.adobe.AdobePremierePro.plist
com.Adobe.Premiere Pro.5.0.plist
and from System Preferences:
the file:  Adobe Premiere Pro Prefs
and..
/.../Premiere Pro/5.0/...
AMEPrefs.xml     (i noticed that there's also a preference file in Media Encoder's own folder so i didn't sweat this one)
Debug Database.txt
Placeholder Preset.epr
PostEncodeCmds.pref
PresetCache.xml
Trace Database.txt
NOTE:
of course i don't know if deleting any files beyond the 2 .plist files in User Prefs was necessary, but...  it seems to have worked.
I then reinstalled Premiere Pro CS5, and fired up an old project and i've got playback of HD and DV files, and snappy editing and rendering,  so hopefully i'm good to go.   I'm just going to stick with v5.0.0 because i actually don't remember ever having any trouble with it, and i don't remember v5.0.4 adding anything i was 'missing' or 'needed'
hopefully, this thread will be useful for any future folks that run into trouble - and it's got a solution for both Windows and OS X
happy editing,
peace