Quick Cluster no longer appears in drop down lists

Question

I haven't changed any settings, one day my cluster just disappears off all the lists it used to appear in (selecting which cluster to use in Compressor, Compressor Droplets and Shake)
Now all that shows is "My Computer".
The QuickCluster wasn't anything special, it was just a local cluster with 16 instances (all on my own computer) to take advantage of the many cores in my machine, unlike My Computer which runs a single thread and uses only an eighth of my available processing power.
Reinstall? Something backend? Force Refresh somewhere I'm unfamiliar with?
I've had my fair share of Qmaster/Compressor problems in the past, but this time I'm not having any trouble finding my cluster in Qadministrator, my Qmaster System Prefs aren't greyed out or anything, the only thing I can think of is my recent update to 10.6.3, but I can't be sure that was the trigger.

Answer 1

Do you have any issue with just creating a regular cluster? instead of a quick cluster? it's not hard and much more reliable. Follow the steps below (this was originally written for multiple computers so if something references multiple computers, sorry- I did my best to edit my previous post to somebody else)
Stop All services in the Qmaster Prefs window.
Under the "setup" tab, Click the middle Bubble "Services and cluster controller". In the "services" section next to compressor check both "share" and "managed" boxes. Options for selected services, click and set as high (or low) as you want. More = Faster, Less = slower but sometimes more stable depending on your RAM.
In the advanced tab, delete files older than : 7 days should suffice unless space is a problem. make it smaller.
Reset the services by holding option and clicking the "start services" and then hit ok on drop-down warning that will show up. Release option and click "Start Sharing".
Open "Apple Qadministrator". On the upper-left field are the actual Clusters (shouldn't be anything there). click the "+" symbol and create a cluster, Name it whatever you want. On the lower field (Qmaster Service Browser, May be hidden, just click the grey triangle to the left to drop down the field) there should be a list of the computers you have available to cluster. Click on the cluster you just created, Select all the computer in the Qmaster Service browser, and drag it into the upper right field, anywhere in the rectangle. The outer edge should highlight with a thick black bar. release and the computer should move into that field and out of the Qmaster Services Browser.
Click on the "Controller" drop-down menu and Select the controller. When you hit Apply, the "Storage:" Field (directly under the "Controller" drop-down box) should change to reflect the storage location you set in the Qmaster Preferences. When you do this, you have created a cluster.
When you send out of compressor - make sure you are either sending Quick time reference files (you shouldn't have any issues with that) or quicktime self-contained files.
You CANNOT "Export to compressor..." from final cut. You CANNOT have your timeline open and do the usual "file>export>using compressor...". You MUST export a QuickTime reference (faster by only using render referenced files. THE TIMELINES MUST BE FULLY RENDERED, option+R instead of Cmd+R) or QT Self-Contained File (slower but more reliable as every frame is rendered. This can triple your time).
It's an extra step up front, but the transcoding time is SIGNIFICANTLY faster - and you can continue working in final Cut on other projects.
Let me know if you need further assistance.