Q: How to fix FCPX 4K editing freezes system

I have iMac i7 16GB system REM, 8GM GXT780 video REM, and El Capitan 10.11 OS. This is the first time I am doing 4K video. It is a 2 hour picture and video slideshow. It starts crash when rendering transition. My computer works fine with every other program. I could still go to FCP and worked on it as long as I did not add transition. Add few more transitions and music and I could finish my project. I called Apple support and the guy had no fixing solution for me but told me to keep using it until problem happens. Adding transition got worse and worse and eventually it crashed the whole system the day before and since then my computer could never boot up any more at all. I am taking it to service today.

Hi, David, Thanks for coming to help.

My DSLR shots are about 10M jpeg files. I was able to edit quite a few 2 hour HD slideshows and burnt to Blu-ray disks and never had any problem until up to 4K adding transition. In the middle of rendering transition, it crashed, and froze the system. It might be that FCP is new to 4K and can not handle RAM usage probably or I need more RAMs.

I have iMac i7 16GB system REM, 8GM GXT780 video REM, and El Capitan 10.11 OS. This is the first time I am doing 4K video. It is a 2 hour picture and video slideshow. It starts crash when rendering transition. My computer works fine with every other program. I could still go to FCP and worked on it as long as I did not add transition. Add few more transitions and music and I could finish my project. I called Apple support and the guy had no fixing solution for me but told me to keep using it until problem happens. Adding transition got worse and worse and eventually it crashed the whole system the day before and since then my computer could never boot up any more at all. I am taking it to service today.

Hi, Tom, thanks a lot for coming to help.

I thought 4K video editing will automatically use 4K resolution of the picture.

I used transitions Style, Black holo, wipes with circle and square and open from the middle. I selected all pictures and video during one day of the trip around 20 minutes and insert one kind of transition at once. It started rendering and crashed in the middle of rendering, sometimes 28%, sometimes 78%...not exactly.

To tell you the truth, I don't remember the exactly version of my OS was now that my iMac is in Apple for repair, it was updated. They will replace my video board to see if it fixes the problem. I think I had 8GB VRAM on it. It was very interesting that it only crashed in the middle of rendering transition, other than that everything else worked fine. According to Apple tech, it might be when it got into 3D graphic it got into the bad part of the video board.

Here is the picture I took when it crashed the last time and never was able to come back work again.

What do you think? Is this the software crash or hardware failure? I hope it was just hardware failure. I like FCP and iMac when they were in working condition.

Hi, David, I was able to use exFAT to format USB drive so that it will allow me to put size larger than 4GB video to the USB drive then playback on 4K TV beautifully. I used FCPX and made a test 4K video slideshow (of course very small size about 30 pictures), I also downloaded a 4.7GB 4K video, put them on USB drive and played on 4K TV with no problem, excellent quality. So I tried to make a whole 4K video about 2 hours long to put on a USB drive to playback on 4K TV and also burn it on Blu-ray disk to play back near 4K quality. If 2 hours 4K video does not work on USB drive, I can always cut it into 2 parts or 3 or 4 parts that for sure will play very nicely on 4K TV and have stunning pictures.

About picture resolution, I did editing for 2 hours 4K video with no problem until adding transition. Will FCPX smart enough to down size a picture to 4K resolution for a 4K resolution video? If not then it should.

Right now Apple store is ordering video board for my iMac. I hope it is just a hardware problem. I will have 90 days to testing on it without paying again. I do love my iMac and FCPX when they were in working condition. Also, Apple service is very good too including this chat room. I learn a lot from all of you. Thanks.

Hi, Tom, would you think too much rendering will over heat video board and eventually destroy it? If that is the case, even after the video board is replaced, the problem will come back again. I have had this iMac for about 3 years and did about six 2 hour HD videos with all kinds of transitions (many of them were 3D transitions) using FCP and burnt them on Blu-ray disks with no problem. Now, several times even after recovering from 4K crashes, I could do anything and everything on iMac with no video board problem but to go into transition rendering just to crash the system. I don't understand it.

Hi, there, for all of you who helped, thanks. I just want to let you know that my iMac was finally crashed completely when rendering transitions in FCPX and sent to Apple Store for repair. They replaced the video logic board and it is working now.

HI, Tom, I just got my iMac video logic board replaced for $595.15 and today I was adding music to my 4K video using FCPX and the system crashed again. This time blue squares on one side of the screen and the computer froze. I went to get the camera and came back FCPX shut down already and there was a error message. I am calling Apple Store now and have been waiting for some one to help for almost half an hour already. How can a new video board goes bad in one use of about 2 hours? Is this really a video board problem or FCPX problem or both? What do you think?