Hi - Help is greatly appreciated as I have to have this system up and running before the end of day!

I just added a mojo DNA to my Avid Xpress Pro System and am now experiencing stuttering during playback as well as when I scrub through either monitors.  When I'm playing back even the simplest of sequences in the timeline, the audio drops out and the wheel starts spinning.  Then the red "Render" line appears on the timeline where the problem occurred.  The computer never crashes, but this problem occurs every 30 seconds or less. When I disconnect the Mojo this problem is resolved.  However, I'm eventually going to need it and would like to get it up and running now.  I didn't download or install anything when I connected  the Mojo - is there some software I'm missing?

Specs:

Avid Xpress Pro 5.8.4

Mojo DNA

G5 Powermac

1.6 Ghz

4 GB DDR SDRAM

OS x 10.4.11

Did you plug your drives directly into the Mojo?

If so, try pluggin them into the CPU instead. Also, if you have FW drives, you must be running them on an external PCI FW card. They cannot share the same FW bus as the Mojo and ALL of the G5's FW ports are on the same bus.

NO, drives are definitely plugged into a separate PCI card.

This is the setup:

I have two FW 800 PCI Cards installed in the back of the tower where I connect the Hard drives.  Mojo is connectd via FW 400 in the front port of the machine.  They can not possibly be connected, can they?

Aye... CORRECTION: Problem exists with OR without Mojo.

SHELGES1:

Then the red "Render" line appears on the timeline where the problem occurred

That's not a "render" line - that's a warning telling you that your storage is not fast enough to playback that footage or section of footage smoothly.  Sometimes rendering will help the playback, but it's really just a cure for the symptom not the problem.

Ah, I see.  But I would have a hard time believing it is the Hard Drives themselves, seeing as I have used them on other similar systems with no problem.  Could it be that my Processor is not fast enough?  I noticed that the minimum processor speed for G5 listed on the Avid Website is 2.0 Ghz.  Or could it be a problem with the PCI cards?  I just installed a new one.  I have two FW 800 cards in slot 2 & 3.

The Red line indicates the CPU is not up to the task.  Also, try using only one PCI card if possible.  Read the "Using Mojo" document to see which slot the Firewire card should be in on your machine as one of those slots may be conflicting with the internal bus that handles the built in firewire ports.

According to the Avid built-in HELP, Red doesn't specify the cause, but indicates that frames cannot be displayed, and rendering is suggested.

Blue indicates a disk speed limitation.

Yellow indicates lack of processing power (CPU).

See "Understanding Real-Time Playback Information in the Timeline".