I have a strange problem. I'm having to use an old PowerPC G4 in order to use DVD Studio Pro for a project I'm working on for a client. I have to use an old Mac and OS because the version of DVD Studio Pro I need to use in order to create the final deliverable is only available in DVD Studio Pro which doesn't work on Intel/modern Macs.
The specs of the computer are:
Processor: 800 MHz PowerPC G4
Memory: 1.25 GB SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.4.11
DVD Studio Pro was working fine up until recently and I can no longer open up the application. Every time I try to open the application it just hangs and I get the old loading spinner and it never goes away. The size of the project I'm working on is something around 6 GB so I figured it's just taking a while to load but I've left it running for several hours to no avail.
A couple questions:
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Is there a way to determine where the program hangs? I'm not super familiar with application logs so I'm not sure exactly where to look for those. I'm sure those would give some insight. The app doesn't crash, it hangs and I have to Force Quit but I figure it couldn't hurt to look.
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Could this possibly be a memory issue? And if so, are there any suggestions on what I can get to upgrade this computer so I can get through this project?
I tried to run the software through Parallels/Virtual Box etc and on a newer computer but there are a variety of reasons why that didn't work. I had it working fine (albeit very slowly) up until this past week.
Any help is greatly appreciate. Thanks!
Update
I turned on my Activity Monitor when I opened up DVD Studio Pro 3. To be clear, I opened up the application from the dock NOT by opening my project directly. I'm just trying to get the program to open up normally.
In the Activity Monitor, when I open up the application, these three processes start:
DSPX_AEncoderSer (Not Responding)
DSPX_EncoderServ (Not Responding)
DVD Studio Pro (Not Responding)
And as you can see they all stop responding. The DVD Studio Pro line item spikes to just over 50% CPU power and then stops responding. Nothing else on the system is eating up any resources.
Best Answer
You can look up the specs on a particular Mac at Everymac.com, which would tell you whether you can add RAM, and what the maximum is. The Everymac site allows you to look up a Mac by serial number, which you can get from the Apple Menu, About This Mac, then "More Info...", which opens System Profiler. It will also tell you the Machine Model, which might be something like "PowerBook6,8", which can also be used to look up a given Mac's specs.
If you go down to "Memory" in the System Profiler list it will tell you the type of memory installed.
You also might want to watch Activity Monitor as you open the program to see what it does with memory usage. Can you open the program without loading the project you are working on, to make sure the program is OK, then try to open the project?