I have tried all the suggested solutions for this problem. I have wasted an entire week of billable time with this. My system meets all required specs - have done all the suggested solutions. Is there an answer for this??? I may have to go back to v4. Doesn't seem like the grand for annual support is worth it does it?

Is this happening on boot up of the program? If so, launch Composer while holding down the c and m keys.

jcorsolini:

I hope you are aware that this Forum is NOT Avid tech support. This is a peer to peer help and feedback site whose members are by and large other video editors just like you. If you have an assurance contract and you need tech support, you should be calling 1-800-800-2843.

Larry, Pardon my "venting" - my frustration level with this situation is a bit high right now. These forums are a wonderful way to find solutions and I appreciate them very much.

My new Avid MC5 install was freezing at this point on my XP machine. What we found out was that it was a conflict with Internet Explorer 8 on my XP machine with SP3. When this was uninstalled, MC5 started up fine.

Our laboratory is a managed computer environment and IE8 gets automatically installed (security issues with previous versions of IE apparently). But I am having them exempt my machine from that process. Still getting that straightened away, but hopefully, I'll be back in business tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help and I hope this info might help someone else with this problem.

This can also happen with some installed third party RTAS plugins.

erik1185:

This can also happen with some installed third party RTAS plugins.

 

That was my "first blush" thought... not all third party RTAS plugs are compatible...

I have not installed any third party RTAS plugins. It that were the problem though, wouldn't it persist even after removal of IE8? With IE8 gone, it starts fine.

I do have Sound Forge on this computer, but I believe those plugins are DirectX.

Still trying to get our IT department to exempt this machine from automatic IE8 installs. It was auto installed on my machine again last night.

jcorsolini:

It was auto installed on my machine again last night.

Can't you disconnect the computer from the network until IT stops auto-updating the machine? It seems your problems are not Avid, but more your IT department being idiots and not following rules of working with Avid. 

Managed computer environments are a tradeoff. They try to keep the bad guys out, but let the good guys in. But it does make it harder and harder to do your job. As soon as you connect it to the network, they would find it and update it. So . . .

It looks like I will need to upgrade this machine to Windows 7.

Instruct your IT team that automatic Windows OS updates can and often do severely affect the application and cause numerous errors and crashes. It is a long standing Avid policy to NOT ALLOW ANY AUTOMATIC OS UPDATES - EVER. If they care about the Avid application running and performing properly, they must obey this rule, whether they understand it, agree with it, or not.

And maybe you can do what we did here at the Pentagon Channel. Our Avid network is separate and isolated from the general IT network. It is NOT Internet connected at all, except for temporary connections established for registrations and downloads. The IT people work under very specific and strict instructions from us to conform to the best conditions for the Avid application to run properly and smoothly. The IT people must be made to understand that Avid is not your routine ordinary "off the shelf" piece of software, and it's needs are completely different than what they are used to.

Hi Larry:  Thank you!!!!!!!! 20 hours into this, and you've solved my problem.  God Bless!

If you don't mind me asking, what does holding down the C and M keys actually do?  My audio plugins still seem to be working.

Best Regards,

John Lynn
GeniusDV
407-222-7787

gdvjohn:

If you don't mind me asking, what does holding down the C and M keys actually do? 

You know John, I have to be honest with you and say I have no f-ing idea. It was advice that was given to me a while back when I was having trouble booting the program without a crash, and it worked for me. It has to be a Windows OS function, similar to Mac boot up options, like holding down p and r to zap the p-ram, holding down the space bar to boot up in safe mode, etc. I've been searching the web and can't find anything relevant. Even my brother, who is Senior Product Manager in IBM's emerging technology division and a computer wizard is stumped on this one, too!

"... what does holding down the C and M keys actually do? ..."

Avid KnowledgeBase Article Here