Help! Sudden Problem prevents me from running FCP

[telebay]

I haven't opened FCP in about a week; however, I did have a problem on my Mac and Apple Support walked me through some reinstalls of OS X -- shouldn't have caused problems, but maybe it did.

Anyhow, now I'm trying to open FCP and I get a window that says:

"Codec not found. You may be using a compression type without the corresponding hardware card."

Also, the timeline and the canvas are missing. I tried to select a sequence by double-clicking it, and got the error again, but this time it was followed by "Error: Out of Memory". I know that isn't really the case.

Now, to my knowledge, I've not made any changes that should account for this, unless fixing my OS X issues did it.

Would it be likely that I should re-install FCP?
If so, what's the best way to go about this... I'm a newbie and want to be careful!
Also, should I also reinstall Motion, Soundtrack, etc.?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Alexa]

if things go screwy, as it sounds they are, you should try "trashing preferences" and/or go through all of these pages:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_troubleshooting_fcp_jordan.html
http://www.geniusdv.com/troubleshoot-finalcutpro.php

You should have a copy of your last "save" in your "Autosave" vault. After you do some of the troubleshooting above and your project file still doesn't work, you should try opening one of the autosave files.

before you did the reinstall of osX, you should have backed up stuff, especially projects in progress.

is your quicktime up to to date? check that out. after your reinstall did you run all the software updates?

if you end up reinstalling fcp, make sure you back up your plugins folder ( if you have any purchased plugins)

another thing you learn along the way: save a new project file every few hours. no one tells you this, I don't think, but all the project files will save you at some point soon. i.e. your project is "lemon_fresh." you should have:

"lemon_fresh_1"
lemon_fresh_2
lemon_fresh_3

etc..you see? that way if you run into trouble and end up with a corrupted file, then you have others to fall back on, in addition to your autosave files. maybe something causes your computer to crahs while you are running fcp? when it crashes, it can ruin your project file and then you have to use another one..so go back to the most recent one that wasn't destroyed.

g-luck

 

[telebay]

Thanks. I trashed my preferences (according to Ken Stone, for FCP 5) and tried to re-start FCP... but same issue appeared.

My last saves appear to be in the AUTOSAVE vault, as you said.

The only plugin I have is Nattress film effects... I suppose I should make sure I have all those in a folder that won't be overwritten and then drop them back in after I reinstall?

Also, will reinstalling damage any of my current work in any way?

Do you think I should just limit my reinstall to FCP?

Does the FCP disk have a repair option, rather than reinstalling the whole thing?

Thanks again!

 

[Alexa]

Thanks. I trashed my preferences (according to Ken Stone, for FCP 5) and tried to re-start FCP... but same issue appeared.

My last saves appear to be in the AUTOSAVE vault, as you said.

The only plugin I have is Nattress film effects... I suppose I should make sure I have all those in a folder that won't be overwritten and then drop them back in after I reinstall?

Also, will reinstalling damage any of my current work in any way?

no, just save your proj files

Do you think I should just limit my reinstall to FCP?

Does the FCP disk have a repair option, rather than reinstalling the whole thing?

Thanks again!

yes, limit it too fcp...I forget how that works exactly, but maybe you should reinstall fcp and compressor.

no special disk repair. but did you repair permissions (Disk Utility). if you have a third party app. like Disk Warrior, that is handy, but probably the app install will be your best bet.