FCPX.1 becomes unresponsive

I seem to have broken FCP 10.1 - in fact I've done it twice now, I don't know how.

I load FCP and everything seems normal, I can skim whatever's in the timeline, change projects, import, all the menus work.

Until I hit play. Then the whole app becomes completely unresponsive, nothing responds, and after a while the SBOD appears. The only thing I can do is Force Quit.

Trashing the three prefs does not fix it.

Neither does trashing the prefs and putting in known good prefs.

This happened soon after Christmas and I re-installed FCPX and all was well.

It's just happened again, I opened FCP, hit play and nothing, as before, SBOD.

Will download a fresh install but would appreciate any ideas.

Not the same issue per se, I have the dialogue box warning me of dropped frames on audio clips, after 6 or 6 OK's all seems to settle down, just when I play audio clips, nothing complex, simple audio.

Why dropped frames on simple audio clips, system is rMBP 2013 with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD.
Justine

Hmmm... the plot thickens... on this occasion it's all come right simply by re-booting the Mac Pro. However I'm fairly sure I tried that a few times when it happened before without success.

Sorry, can't help with your rMBP issue. If it only happens early on in a session and then fixes itself, perhaps FCP is drawing on computer resources which are busy? Are your audio clips at 48k AIF, or are they something else? FCP may be converting them to play back.

For best performance, be sure all audio only clips are 48kHz, 16-bit, AIFF files.

The audio is listed as: 48kHz, Audio Bit Rate: 1 536 000, Bit Depth: 16,

Justine

What codec?

The audio is according to reveal in finder is AIFF-C audio, having been through the entire menu in inspector, that is all I can find.
Justine

Are you unable to hear clear audio?

As for dropped frames, just turn that warning off in the Preferences. Especially if you're working on a laptop. Yes, FCP will drop frames on purpose so that your hardware can give you "good enough playback" to edit with. But you're exports will be full framed clips. It is only a playback issue, vs your available hardware.

Dropped frames on audio only? That's very odd. How long is the audio clip, and is it mono, stereo, or 5.1?

The audio is a 3 minute voice over, the laptop has to drop frame error message about 20-25 times before it is happy to play, would you say that it is better to upgrade the laptop to 8GB?

The audio is stereo.
Justine

Personally, I'd never use FCPX with less than 8GB RAM. But a 3 minute VO, that's odd. What drive is the Library on? Hopefully a USB 3 external.

Everything is internal, the 120GB Solid State Drive and 4GB RAM, it has reached a point where I cannot use the laptop, I am having beachballs when I take off the dropped frames error report. I know I need USB3.0, at this point I am just using stock footage, to learn how to edit on FCP 10.1.

The fact it takes so long just to wait for the kernal panics to resolve.

Thanks BenB