
Troubleshooting Tips from Virtual Media Technicians
Mac Adrenaline Quick Fixes
PC Adrenaline Quick Fixes
Final Cut Pro Quick Fixes
Mac
Adrenaline Quick Fixes
The
Macintosh-based Avid is a highly sophisticated system. Luckily
most minor problems can be fixed with a few simple steps. This
document will outline a few of those quick fixes.
-
REMOVE ACCESSORIES:
Adrenaline is extremely sensitive to the performance of the
host computer. Detach any external devices which could be
slowing down the hostís performance (for example: Zip
drives, Jaz drives, external CD or DVD Burners) and retry
the action. Also keep in mind that no Firewire devices can
be attached to your Mac while the Adrenaline is running
unless you have an additional Firewire card installed in the
Computer.
-
NEW USER/NEW PROJECT:
Quit your Avid application, then restart it; open the Avid
application and select a new User Profile and a new project,
then retry the action that caused the problem. If the
problem does not persist then itís likely that your User
Profile, project or bin is corrupt in some way.
-
TRASH ANY MCSTATE
FILES: MCstate files track activity within the Avid
application (which bins are open, the position of windows,
etc.). They occasionally become corrupt. Quit your Avid
application; from the Finder click Command-F and search for
ëMCstateí; take all the results from the search and put them
in the trash; Upon restart of the Avid application, new
MCstate files will become created.
-
REPAIR DISK
PERMISSIONS: Quit the Avid application, navigate to
the Applications folder, then the Utilities folder and open
the Disk Utility. Select the Macintosh HD in the left
field, and the Repair tab on the right. Click on the
ëRepair Disk Permissions on Macintosh HDí button.
-
DELETE MEDIA DATABASES:
Quit your Avid application; from the Finder click Command-F
and search for ëmsmFMIDí, making sure to select all drives;
take all the results from the search and put them in the
trash; do another search for ëmsmMMOBí
and delete the
results of the search; restart the Avid application and the
databases will recreate themselves.
-
CORRUPT MEDIA:
Open up each of your media drives and sort the contents
alphabetically. Delete any folders called ëQuarantinedí or
files that begin with the ë+í sign. These types of file are
corrupt. Note that you are deleting media and that this is
irretrievable. If you are lucky, the deleted file is a
precompute that will need to be re-rendered, if youíre not
you may have to recapture the file.
-
CORRUPT CLIP:
Occasionally a clip can become corrupted. First, duplicate
your sequence. Locate the problematic clip using Play In To
Out on different sections of the timeline until youíve
isolated the clip thatís causing the problem. Delete the
clip from the sequence.
If youíve tried
these quick fixes and are still having concerns, you may have a
more serious problem. You may consider contacting a certified
Avid technician. With an applicable support contract, Virtual
Mediaís
WebTech can be a
highly useful tool for remote troubleshooting. These are the
steps for connecting:
-
Open up Internet Explorer (Safari will not
currently work) and browse to the following site:
https://virtualmediaonline.webex.com
-
You will see a meeting that the technician
has already started. Click on the ëJoin Nowí button next to
your meetingís name.
-
When prompted, enter your name, e-mail
address and the meeting password that the technician
supplies.
-
The applet will install. Click ìAllow this
sessioní to the security warning. You can safely ignore the
browserís security notifications
PC
Adrenaline Quick Fixes:
The HP-based
Avid is a highly sophisticated system. Luckily most minor
problems can be fixed with a few simple steps. This document
will outline a few of those quick fixes.
-
REMOVE ACCESSORIES:
Adrenaline is extremely sensitive to the performance of the
host computer. Detach any external devices which could be
slowing down the hostís performance (for example: Zip
drives, Jaz drives, external CD or DVD Burners) and retry
the action. Also keep in mind that no Firewire devices can
be attached to your PC while the Adrenaline is running
unless you have an additional Firewire card installed in the
computer.
-
NEW USER/NEW PROJECT:
Quit your Avid application, then restart it; open the Avid
application and select a new User Profile and a new project,
then retry the action that caused the problem. If the
problem does not persist then itís likely that your User
Profile, project or bin is corrupt in some way. You can now
isolate the problem further by then opening the old project
with the new user, and so on.
-
TRASH ANY MCSTATE
FILES: MCstate files track activity within the Avid
application (which bins are open, the position of windows,
etc.). They occasionally become corrupt. Quit your Avid
application; from the desktop click Windows-F and search for
ëMCstateí; take all the results from the search and put them
in the trash; Upon restart of the Avid application, new
MCstate files will become created.
-
DELETE MEDIA DATABASES:
Quit your Avid application; from the Desktop click Windows-F
and search for ëmsmFMIDí, making sure to select all drives;
take all the results from the search and put them in the
trash; do another search for ëmsmMMOBí
and delete the
results of the search; restart the Avid application and the
databases will recreate themselves.
-
CORRUPT MEDIA:
Open up each of your media drives and sort the contents
alphabetically. Delete any folders called ëQuarantinedí or
files that begin with the ë+í sign. These types of file are
corrupt. Note that you are deleting media and that this is
irretrievable. If you are lucky, the deleted file is a
precompute that will need to be re-rendered, if youíre not
you may have to recapture the file.
-
CORRUPT CLIP:
Occasionally a clip can become corrupted. First, duplicate
your sequence. Locate the problematic clip using Play In To
Out on different sections of the timeline until youíve
isolated the clip thatís causing the problem. Delete the
clip from the sequence.
If youíve tried
these quick fixes and are still having concerns, you may have a
more serious problem. You may consider contacting a certified
Avid technician. With an applicable support contract, Virtual
Mediaís
WebTech can be a
highly useful tool for remote troubleshooting. These are the
steps for connecting:
-
Open up Internet Explorer (other browsers
will not currently work) and browse to the following site:
http://virtualmediaonline.webex.com
-
You will see a meeting that the technician
has already started. Click on the ëJoin Nowí button next to
your meetingís name.
-
When prompted, enter your name, e-mail
address and the meeting password that the technician
supplies.
-
The applet will install. You can safely
ignore the browserís security notifications
Final Cut
Pro Quick Fixes:
Final Cut Pro is a highly sophisticated system.
Luckily most minor problems can be fixed with a few simple
steps. This document will outline a few of those quick fixes.
-
NEW USER: Quit
FCP and open up System Preferences. Click on the Accounts
icon. Create a new user (in Panther, click on the ë+í
icon). Then log out of the operating system and log back in
as the new user. If the problem is no longer evident, then
it is possible that a user preference has become corrupt.
-
TRASHING USER
PREFERENCES: Quit FCP and double-click on your
Macintosh HD. Browse to Users/<your user
name>/Library/Preferences/ Final Cut Pro User Data. Delete
the files called ìFinal Cut Pro 4.0 Preferencesî ìFinal Cut
Pro POA Cacheî. You will need to reset any user
preferences, including your Easy Setup upon re-entry into
FCP.
-
REPAIR DISK
PERMISSIONS: Quit FCP, navigate to the Applications
folder, then the Utilities folder and open the Disk
Utility. Select the Macintosh HD in the left field, and the
Repair tab on the right. Click on the ëRepair Disk
Permissions on Macintosh HDí button. Also, holding down the
Shift key while restarting will force the Mac to run File
System Check.
If youíve tried these quick fixes and are still
having concerns, you may have a more serious problem. You may
consider contacting a certified Final Cut technician. With an
applicable support contract, Virtual Mediaís
WebTech can be a
highly useful tool for remote troubleshooting. These are the
steps for connecting:
-
Open up Internet Explorer (Safari will not
currently work) and browse to the following site:
https://virtualmediaonline.webex.com
-
You will see a meeting that the technician
has already started. Click on the ëJoin Nowí button next to
your meetingís name.
-
When prompted, enter your name, e-mail
address and the meeting password that the technician
supplies.
-
The applet will install. Click ìAllow this
sessioní to the security warning. You can safely ignore the
browserís security notifications
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