Lots of problems with RED ROCKET!

[sander kamp]

I am having lots of problems with the RED Rocket card.

- When I first start up the computer the card doesn't work. It gives a garbled image (attached) and nothing happens. When closing the software RocketCine or RedCine-X and starting up again the image changes to black and nothing happens. When I restart the computer it might or might not work. Once the card works it mostly stays working until the next time I start up the computer.

- RocketCine-X crashes randomly. In a large batch it just stops working somewhere in the middle and I have to find out by hand where it was when it crashed. Not sure if this is related to the garbled image thing.

- When connected to a external HP Dreamcolor (I guess other screens as well but haven't tried) screen over DVI, a certain black level in the image flickers. I can confirm this by making the image darker or lighter with the exposure. When it reaches the black level that part of the image starts to flicker, when I make it lighter the flicker goes away. This is with a still standing image, so no playing timeline.

I have filed a support ticket with RED and got the advice to install drivers and firmware which I did but it didn't help. I am on the set and need to make dailies for editing. We have two MX cameras so the only way is with the RED Rocket.

Could it have to do with being on generator power? The computer works fine otherwise though.

Early 2009 MacPro 8-core 2.26 Ghz 12GB .

 

[Bastiaan Houtkooper]

Hi Sander, (that sounds Dutch) did you try to relocate the card in another slot?
Normally it should be the top slot against the harddisks but you can place it in an other one for testing. (If that works you will have to adjust the bus speed).

Did you install the driver before you added the card?
Do you have other cards in the machine?

 

[sander kamp]

Yep, Dutch but living in Bangkok, where at the moment they are firing real rockets in the streets :-(

I took out a esata card and the RED Rocket seems to be happier right now, but have to see if it's for real. The flickering black level is still there. RocketCine X still crashes from time to time.

Haven't tried another slot or other machine - just need to get it working now.

 

[Deanan]

Yep, Dutch but living in Bangkok, where at the moment they are firing real rockets in the streets :-(

I took out a esata card and the RED Rocket™ seems to be happier right now, but have to see if it's for real. The flickering black level is still there. RocketCine X still crashes from time to time.

Haven't tried another slot or other machine - just need to get it working now.

Can you email us the whole log directory?
redcinex at red dot com

It sounds like a pci-e conflict but hard to tell.

 

[sander kamp]

Where can I find the log directory?

 

[Deanan]

Where can I find the log directory?

user folder/library/application support/red/redcinex (or rocketcinex)/logs

 

[CJ Roy]

Deanan-

Any chance of you guys releasing a small diagnostics tool for the rocket? Just to make sure everything's working properly?

 

[Deanan]

Deanan-

Any chance of you guys releasing a small diagnostics tool for the rocket? Just to make sure everything's working properly?

Yeah, we're working on one. Most of the problems we encounter often have to do with problems outside of rocket (like bad memory, etc) so it may not tell us enough.

 

[CJ Roy]

Yeah, we're working on one. Most of the problems we encounter often have to do with problems outside of rocket (like bad memory, etc) so it may not tell us enough.

Well, at least it'll tell us if the rocket is performing. Everything else will have to be isolated.

What's the bad memory problems that have been coming up?

 

[Deanan]

Well, at least it'll tell us if the rocket is performing. Everything else will have to be isolated.

What's the bad memory problems that have been coming up?

Bad memory usually result in crashes or occasionally not communicating with rocket properly. The computer works enough but runs into problem when you put it under load like transcoding.

Occasionally we'll come across a bad motherboard or an OS install that has gotten funky.

The other problem is sometimes mishandling of the rocket. Lots of moving the rocket around from machine to machine but not handling it with proper static protection or shipping it without proper packaging.

 

[CJ Roy]

Mine went bad and I have no idea why. It was moved 3 times. 1. Installed on the 8-core. 2. Re-seated when it all of a sudden no longer recognized the 8x slot. 3. into a mobile rocket.

It also caused a lot of smaller, random problems and finally had to be swapped out for another. A diagnostics tool would have been helpful to let you guys know there was something seriously wrong with the card, and get it replaced asap.

 

[sander kamp]

Agree. A diagnostic tool that at least can tell if the card is still okay would be good. At least it would tell you if you have to look at the card or somewhere else.

Also, I would really like to know if RocketCine-X is supposed to be stable when rendering. And if random crashes are a normal thing then how are people working with it?

 

[Deanan]

Agree. A diagnostic tool that at least can tell if the card is still okay would be good. At least it would tell you if you have to look at the card or somewhere else.

Also, I would really like to know if RocketCine-X is supposed to be stable when rendering. And if random crashes are a normal thing then how are people working with it?

Not normal. There have been a bunch of large budget features and also post houses that use rocketcine daily to process footage all day long without problems.

 

[jimhare]

In defence of the Rocket, my Rocket has worked perfectly since day one, even in a first-gen 4-core Mac Pro.

 

[sander kamp]

Not normal. There have been a bunch of large budget features and also post houses that use rocketcine daily to process footage all day long without problems.

Hmm, so what could be the cause of the crashes? RocketCine-X as wel as RedCine-X crash on a regular basis when rendering. They don't hang or anything but just disappear. I was kind of blaming the beta status of them but if other people have no problems then I want no problems too!

 

[Deanan]

Hmm, so what could be the cause of the crashes? RocketCine-X as wel as RedCine-X crash on a regular basis when rendering. They don't hang or anything but just disappear. I was kind of blaming the beta status of them but if other people have no problems then I want no problems too!

We're checking out your logs already. Probably best to continue trying to figure out over email what else we can isolate.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Hi Sander, (that sounds Dutch) did you try to relocate the card in another slot?
Normally it should be the top slot against the harddisks but you can place it in an other one for testing. (If that works you will have to adjust the bus speed).

I have to disagree with that here. On '08 and '09 Mac Pro systems, there is no way to adjust PCI-E lanes or slot speed. Slot-4, the top slot against the hard drives, is a X4 slot. Best slot for the rocket is the second X16 slot (Slot-2), which is right above the double-width Slot-1 where the video card typically resides.

So I would first recommend placing the card there and see if there is any improvements. I would also be curious to know which video card is installed in this system? If memory serves me, there was a thread similar to this a couple weeks back and it seemed to be an issue with the installed video card in conjunction with the RED Rocket. They swapped the video card out for an ATI 4870 and everything worked. I don't know if it was a coincidence or if the video card did really have an issue, but it's something to look at I guess. Could be other things, but it does seem like a PCI-E issue more so than bad RAM or other software causing the problems.

 

[Mike Prevette]

Jeff is correct, on a '08 or '09 mac pro the RedRocket should be in one of the bottom slots (1 or 2) to work properly.

 

[sander kamp]

Best slot for the rocket is the second X16 slot (Slot-2), which is right above the double-width Slot-1 where the video card typically resides.

They swapped the video card out for an ATI 4870 and everything worked. I don't know if it was a coincidence or if the video card did really have an issue, but it's something to look at I guess. Could be other things, but it does seem like a PCI-E issue more so than bad RAM or other software causing the problems.

It's already in the second slot from the bottom and I have a ATI 4870.

 

[Jordan Livingston]

I would love to know the resolution / outcome of Sander's problem. My REDRocket has traveled from MacPro (works perfectly) to Mobile Rocket MacBook Pro (also works perfectly) but whenever I use it with the Mobile Rocket and Mac Pro, for some reason, that particular combo always causes kernel panics during large batches of transcodes (yes, I do have set the jumper switches in the Mobile Rocket correctly).

In other words, MobileRocket + Laptop works fine. REDRocket in Desktop works fine. But MobileRocket + Desktop has never worked properly. I've just avoided that configuration and gotten away with it, but it would be great to know definitively if bad RAM or a funky OS install is really to blame all a long.

- Jordan