The Mac CS6 "Serious Error" thread

[needles27]

It looks like there are 4-6 disjointed threads about some big problems Mac users are finding with CS6 (and 6.0.1)  To give us a better place to figure out solutions and for others to find with a search, maybe we can post a discussion here.

The Adobe engineers are participating and receiving crash logs, and hopefully a pattern can develop.

I'm on a MacPro 4,1, Lion 10.7.4, CS6.0.1, 32GB RAM, GTX 285 with the latest nVidia and CUDA drivers.  I am seeing 2 primary issues:

Lots of Serious Error crashes.  This happens without any noticeable pattern - sometimes with the title tool, trim monitor, or simply just scrubbing the timeline.  It seems to happen more frequently with Dynamic Links in the timeline.  Also, I believe it is happening more often (or maybe exclusively)  with the MPE GPU option enabled.  I think in Software Only mode, it may not be present, although further testing required.

Also, I am having an issue where Pr will display black only in the source and program monitors, unless I click around the timeline and will get flashes of images.  This is remedied by changing over to Software Only for the MPE.  It seems to be worse if Safari is running.

Wil - an Adobe engineer - has taken a look at my crash logs and seems to think something is funky with the graphcs drivers in both cases, but crash logs from other users seem to not agree. 

CS6 on the mac - for  me and a few others - is incredibly flaky.  If you are having issues, can you post and explain what you are seeing and what your hardware/driver config is.  Any patterns we can find will help the engineers troubleshoot and get this taken care of. 

[tclark513]

tinklevision256 wrote:

I have to say, despite this recent round of problems, I so much prefer Premiere to FCP, the thought of going back makes me shiver. Key Frames yes! aside form the Cuda fix, all I need is the addition of Pixel motion function and the ability to add Warp Stabilizer to different frame sizes in a sequence, and I will be golden!

The sad part is Pixel Motion was already in Premiere and they removed it.  Unfortunately!!

[tinklevision256]

Well they removed Warp Stabilizer and then brought that back, so one can hope!

[tclark513]

tinklevision256 wrote:

Well they removed Warp Stabilizer and then brought that back, so one can hope!

Premiere never had Warp Stabilizer.

[tinklevision256]

My bad, but it did used to have a stabalizing plug-in right? Before my time regardless, just thought I read it somewhere.

[jwffvm]

Finally had some time to solve the crashing problem.  All it took was one call to AJA.  They don't yet have drivers for the 6.0.2 update.  Reinstalled pp and added 6.0.1 update and everything is working great.

[Cr3ating]

@jwffvm - we don't use AJA but are still getting this error. The error occurs on two different machines with two different drives. It seems to happen when scrolling quickly through the project. Here is our crash log:

Process:         Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 [1819]

Path:            /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

Identifier:      com.adobe.AdobePremierePro

Version:         6.0.2 (6.0.2)

Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)

Parent Process:  launchd [166]

User ID:        xxxxx

Date/Time:       xxxxxxxxxx

OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8.2 (12C54)

Report Version:  10

Interval Since Last Report:         xxxxxxx

Crashes Since Last Report:          xxxxxx

Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  xxxxx

Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   xxxxx

Anonymous UUID:                      xxxxxx

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)

Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000

Model: MacBookPro6,2, BootROM MBP61.0057.B0F, 2 processors, Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.58f16

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics, Intel HD Graphics, Built-In, 288 MB

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, PCIe, 512 MB

Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x802C, 0x31364A53533531323634485A2D3147314131

Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x802C, 0x31364A53533531323634485A2D3147314131

AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x93), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.106.98.81.22)

Bluetooth: Version 4.0.9f33 10885, 2 service, 11 devices, 1 incoming serial ports

Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en1

Serial ATA Device: ST9640320AS, 640.14 GB

Serial ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898

USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424  (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfa100000 / 2

USB Device: JM20336 SATA, USB Combo, 0x152d  (JMicron Technology Corp.), 0x2336, 0xfa140000 / 6

USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, apple_vendor_id, 0x0236, 0xfa120000 / 5

USB Device: BRCM2070 Hub, 0x0a5c  (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0xfa110000 / 4

USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x8218, 0xfa113000 / 8

USB Device: Internal Memory Card Reader, apple_vendor_id, 0x8403, 0xfa130000 / 3

USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424  (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfd100000 / 2

USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0xfd120000 / 4

USB Device: Built-in iSight, apple_vendor_id, 0x8507, 0xfd110000 / 3

[Post edited for content]

[BenjaminMarkus]

Usually posting your entire crash log is not the most helpful way of solving the issue.  In the future I'd hold off on such a long post unless someone asks for it.  In the meantime I'll try and get someone to look into this.

[Cr3ating]

First off Ben thanks for passing it along to someone and taking the time to mention it here so people know it has been dealt with. Considering that this issue has been around for sometime, if it takes a long post for adobe to pay attention, your rebuke is the price I guess I'll pay! From an adobe persective I would think that anything, including a bit of server space and a long post, to get help to make your software usable after a client has spent thousands on it and how had looked for a place to submit a big report without jumping through a bunch of hoops would be a no brainer. But then that is just me.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Cr3ating,

Sorry you are having trouble. We are working hard on issues related to the "Serious Error" warning on Mac OS.  Our staff is aware of the issues, rest assured.

As Ben said, it's best not to post crash logs to the forum. If you must, limit it to the first 50 lines, or so, as that is the part usually looked at by engineers. It is really an inconvenience for other users trying to troubleshoot a problem.

To submit a bug report or feature request, do so here: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

Thanks a lot.

[the_wine_snob]

For Still, I Scale mine in PS to exactly what I need. In most cases, that will match the Frame Size of the Project, but when I need to Pan on a Zoomed out Image, I will calculate how many pixels I need. If it is only a Pan (no Tilt), I will even Crop the unused vertical pixels. As some of my Projects have thousands of Still Images, that keeps the processing overhead down.

There are, however, different workflows. Some people, and especially as of CS 5 and MPE/CUDA, who like to do the Scaling in PrPro (the Scaling algorithms were greatly improved), and use Scale to Default Frame Size.

I just like keeping that overhead down, and have never had an issue.

Good luck,

Hunt

[abcdlee21]

I've recently gotten the "serious error" window on one of my projects. This happens immediately after Premiere opens the project. I'm on the retina macbook pro.

[ExactImage]

v6.0.2 - I just got a Serious Error dialog while keywording.  

Rebooted & wait for everrything to load.  Tap the space bar by mistake, Pr takes off playing audio with no video movement, the mouse moves but I can't click on anything.  The keyboard no longer responds and the mouse moves but won't click.  Have to force power off using the power button.

Reboot - everything works normally.

< sigh >

We do get the occasional glitch from premiere pro on the windows 7 systems but nothing like we're getting on the Mac, yet Adobe software is the only one crashing on the Mac, whereas everything else seems solid. 

[jwffvm]

Good news bad news story for me as I'm sure it is for most.

Generally before the update my system was running pretty well with 2 or 3 serious errors a day.  Not terrific but workable.  After installing update opened new 1080/60i project loaded about 50 GB of clips from an XDCAM ex 30 p shoot to screen.  Every time I'd attempt to screen a clip it crashed with the serious error.  Happened 3 times in a row, so I made a new sequence in 30p and all worked fine.  Filed bug report.

Went back to work in another 1080/60i project that I was about 15 minutes into.  Laying down VO (wav) recorded in Audition.  Inserted 3 or 4 cuts then started crashing as I attempted to listen to the next VO clip.  Again this happened 3 times in a row(that seems to be my attention span). Filed big report.

Trashed preferences, restarted, repaired permissions and work for 8 more hours with no issues!  I have no clue.

Thx....jw

MAC PRO 2 x 2.93 GHz 6 Core

12 GB 1333 MJZ DDR3 Ram

Kona 3 card

Quadro 4000 graphics card

OS 10.7.4

CS6.0.1.31

Video drive Apple XServe raid

plus 2 TB G-raid & 3, 2 TB internal 7200 RPM drives

[lot 7 media]

New nvidia driver for 10.8.1 quadro 4000 for mac.  first mountain lion driver i've seen. installed and things have quieted down (for the morning at least)  will report if it stays stable, esp. with dynamic linking

http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.00f20-driver.html

[Glitchdog]

Very cool, I did note only for certain model MacPros:

This driver update is for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010), Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) and Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) users only.

Really hoping for a soon fix for this so I can move from our MacBook Pro on CS6 to our main 5,1 MacPro.

Although I only had one serious error crash in CS6 on the MacBook Pro since updating Premiere and the CUDA/OpenCL driver I've had no issues. I've only had maybe 20 hrs of editing on it though, so I'm cautious.

[tclark513]

hillscreenprod wrote:

New nvidia driver for 10.8.1 quadro 4000 for mac.  first mountain lion driver i've seen. installed and things have quieted down (for the morning at least)  will report if it stays stable, esp. with dynamic linking

http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.00f20-driver.html

How are things working out since your video card driver update?

[lot 7 media]

updating my nvidia driver to the one they just put out that's mountain lion compatible completely solved the problem.  i had a three video series i had to complete last week - all three were the same kind of video - same sort of stills, same degree of dynamic linking. numbers 1 and two were done prior to updating the nvidia driver and had dozens of error compiling movie 'events'. the third one was done post-update and i had zero errors (and finished it in about a quarter of the time.)

i'd rec. everybody look at their nvidia driver situation - it may not apply to your system, but it def. did the trick for me.  here's that link again

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[tclark513]

hillscreenprod wrote:

updating my nvidia driver to the one they just put out that's mountain lion compatible completely solved the problem.  i had a three video series i had to complete last week - all three were the same kind of video - same sort of stills, same degree of dynamic linking. numbers 1 and two were done prior to updating the nvidia driver and had dozens of error compiling movie 'events'. the third one was done post-update and i had zero errors (and finished it in about a quarter of the time.)

i'd rec. everybody look at their nvidia driver situation - it may not apply to your system, but it def. did the trick for me.  here's that link again

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

That's good news.  Are you running 6.0.2?

[lot 7 media]

yep - and take this with a grain of salt b/c i wasn't really monitoring things for metrics, but i was getting a fair amount of error messages when i was at 6.0.1 but errors seemed to multiply around 6.0.2 .  what i can say with a fair degree of certainty is that when i installed the quadro things got faster, but much less stable (they should put a sticker on it explaining the frame size limitation on stills) but now that i'm driver current it's smooth sailing. i'm not touching 10.8.2.

[needles27]

You said you were getting compiling errors, but were you seeing the "Serious Error" message as well?  I think that is the one that is at the core of the problems (at least in the scope of this thread) and if this driver update has eliminated that for you, we will maybe have some fgood news for a change...

[lot 7 media]

i went from total stability to if there was an error - i was getting it.  compiling errors, serious errors that shut the entire program down, video preview errors - you name it. additionally,  i was getting errors encoding out of media encoder, after effects was crashing and dynamic linking was losing footage randomly so i'd have to go back and relink.  i'm not new at this either, so while pilot error may have played a role in some of it, it can't account for everything i was seeing. 

but now that i have that new driver installed (and nvidia did just release it - within maybe the past month or so) everything has stablized.  BUT my gut tells me this isn't a silver bullet for everybody.  things are updating so quickly these days - you go from 10.8.1 to .2 then 6.0.1 to 6.0.2 - that the old strategy of finding a configuration that is stable and hanging on until you absolutely have to update no longer applies. which makes me think this thread isn't going anywhere, sadly - and that adobe is probably doing its level best to establish stability in the context on constant re-versioning by all the bells and whistles its customers get from places like video copilot (twitch and optical flares were crashing me like crazy for a while) and nvidia etc.

[needles27]

Good to hear it's working for you.  Has anyone else who has been having Serious Errors given this new driver a try and seen any change? 

[Guest]

@needles27,  I've been running the 6.0.2 update with CUDA drivers 5.0.24 with the Quadro 4000 for Mac successfully for the last couple of days on a new user account.  The new user account has changed the performance of my machine considerably.  I will be sure to update the thread if I experience issues, but so far I've been impressed.

[needles27]

I took the chance again and upgraded to 10.8.2 and CS6.02 thinking I would try this new nVidia driver.  However, when I tried to install it, I got a warning that a driver was already installed by the OS.  Does anyone know if the included OSX driver and the nVidia drivers are the same?  If this latest nVidia driver is better to use, does anyone know how to manually install it over the OSX version?

Regardless, I will have some testing this week to see if there is any change.  Last time I tried Mountain Lion, (10.8, CS 6) it crashed even more than Lion.  Hoping there was some important change in 10.8.2 and the nVidia drivers that does the trick...

[Bob Ramage]

The 10.8.2 nVidia driver for CUDA cards included by Apple is an older one. Much less stable with CS6 than the latest 304.00.00f20 driver, in my experience. If you want, I believe you can get around the install warning by mounting the driver DMG then right-clicking and choosing "show package contents/contents/packages" and double clicking on webDriverPayload_68z6s.pkg. Not sure how well it works with 10.8.2. Personally, I reverted to 10.8.1 until nVidia releases an updated driver for 10.8.2. It's been absolutely rock solid for me. Latest nVidia driver available here: www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.00f20-driver.html