I am cautious to say that I had a full day yesterday working trouble free with my current set up of the Mac Pro running 10.5.4, the Cintiq 20WSX with Driver 6.08-2 (RC), and Adobe Flash CS3. I was doing mostly posing and was treading a bit lightly, but still it was promising to see that I got through the day without any incidence since the last one I had here.
I was starting to think that I was the only one running this set up because anytime I search google for “Mac Pro and Cintiq crashing”, it only led me back to my blog! I really wanted to know if any one out there has the same set up as mine to find out if they too were having the same issues as I had.
So far, I have not heard from any one else. It might be that most of them are really busy with what they were doing that they have no time to go online. One that really makes me shudder is that maybe they are having a grand time with their set up and have no troubles at all. I definitely envy them!
I posted my troubles in Apple’s own discussion forum. I had a number of responses, but not enough to give me a definite answer to why my crashes occurred and how to completely eliminate them in the future. The thread can be found here. It gave small consolation that some do run a set up almost similar to mine, albeit with a different Mac Pro and Cintiq model.
I hesitate to say that what I am seeing from running this current set up right now is encouraging because I was burned before when I did that. I will keep on monitoring this set up and hopefully the stability that I am experiencing will continue on.
Oh, I have to point out that right after I rebooted from the crash I had that day, I immediately did a Repair Disk Permission. Just a note in case that helped solved the instability.
Randy M. Santa Ana: I Animate 
Hi There! I’ve read your blog since I got my Cintiq, but I do’nt have the same problems as you.
My Configuration is:
Mac Pro
2 -Dual-Core Intel Xeon @ 3 GHz
2 GB ram
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512mb
1 Apple Cinema Display 23 inch
1 Cintiq 12inch (yeah the small one 🙂 )
Im Runing on Leopard 10.5.4 too
Adobe CS3 last version available (have you updated your version?)
I know this is not helping you, cause my Cintiq is so diferent to yours, but i just drped by to tell you that I love your Blog! Keep up the good work!
Hello Ehecatil! Thanks for dropping by!
Nice to hear about your trouble-free set up. Knowing that somebody else is running trouble-free is very encouraging to me because now I know that my setup should really work; all I have to to is nail down what is causing my issues!
The past couple of days are looking very good since I performed the haxies removal procedure. After doing a Repair Disk Permission right after the latest crash, the Mac Pro has been running incident free. I still am hesitant to declare the issue solved until I have it running for more than a week. But things are looking up.
Randy
Hi Randy, your a source of inspiration and exasperation and I always come back to your blog in the hope that you’ve cracked it, and every now and then you seem to of. Quite honestly I’ve had problems from the get go with my 21UX occasionally having moments where it work great reminding me why I bought it but those days seem few and far between.
set up.
mac pro 3.2 (which I just upgraded to 10.5.4 only for it to disappear again)
23″
30″
wacom 21ux ( which to all intense and purpose has become the most expensive 21″ monitor and little else)
PS CS3 updated
I read somewhere that this was an OS problem unloading the usb driver when plugged in after a minute or so, So I used to start up without the wacom usb plugged in. After a minute of so I would plug it in and vuala it worked. But not any more. Wacom drivers seem to be written in a vacum and are the most fragile of any I’ve ever worked with. Apple show little interest (maybe their hoping to bring down wacoms stock price before that release their own?).
Sorry for the rant. Like you I’ve tried everything and will carry on trying work permitting. I just wanted to let you know you’re not alone (although it seems like it is writing this at 4.30 in the morning as I am)
Rest assured that I’ll keep an eye on your blog and post any successes I may have……
Keep up the good work….
senorchips
Hi Senorchips! Thanks for dropping by! Not that I am happy hearing about other’s hardship, but I am somewhat consoled now that I know I am not the only one having issues with the Mac Pro and the Cintiq.
I’ve read about what you said regarding the OS unloading the tablet driver and that unplugging it at start up would seem to make it work. Earlier in the course of my issues, I was told by Wacom Support that putting the Mac to sleep might do this once in a while, that is, OS X would trash the driver. I have since refrained from putting my Mac to sleep and would instead shut the thing down.
I was also told to remove these so called “haxies”. They come from this application called Application Enhancer. I was familiar with this when I used to work with a Powerbook, but it was only now that I learned from Wacom Support that running these haxies causes the instability with the Cintiq.
I had to mention haxies because when I performed the procedure to remove them, the whole set up somehow became more stable. However, updating Flash CS3 seem to install them back into the system once again. I say that because after my fresh install of everything a couple of weeks ago, I held off updating Flash CS3 but when I did, lo and behold, my system started crashing again! So I performed the haxies removal procedure once more and found that that made everything stable, at least for now.
Thanks again for reassuring me that I am not alone and that you yourself are having issues. I am sure that now with two heads going at it, we might find a complete solution or a work around at least down the road!
Randy
Hi Randy, may I pick your brain. I feel like I’ve tried everything but these haxies have got me intrigue. Doing a find turns up nothing which isn’t a surprise I guest from what you’ve describes but the Application Enhancer is nowhere to be found either. I followed you apple link and rebooted as a target drive connected to my G5 but alas it was there. I’ve remove my Flash cs3 programme using the uninstaller but flash being as ubiquitous as it is, I cant really remove all flash files indiscriminately. I supose what I’m asking is am I missing the point, is there a way to identify/remove these corrupting files or is there something else I need to do as 10.5.4 and the latest wacom drive just don’t want to speak to each other. Sorry I know your busy but if anything springs to mind I would really appreciate it
many thanks
charlie
Hi Charlie,
To be honest, when I first got the response from Wacom Support and search for the Application Enhancer, I couldn’t find them either. No amount of digging in the Systems Folder gave any results. I had to go to Single-User mode and remove it via the command line. I think this is the third option mentioned in the Apple link.
I am not sure if any of the Flash CS3 programmes are at fault, it maybe just these haxies or Application Enhancer that came with the updates that is causing the trouble. I am as clueless as you are as to how to identify or remove these corrupt files.
So far, I can only point to these haxies as the cause of all the troubles I am having. As for now, 10.5.4 and Driver 6.08-2 (RC) for me has become trouble-free ever since I performed the haxies removal. Since you’ve performed the operation of removing these haxies yourself, I hope it has yielded some form of stability to your own set up.
This reeks, doesn’t it? But we’ll iron it out soon, I hope!
Randy
Hi Randy, I wish I had some good news but so far I’m no better off than I was before. Still no Cintiq which by judging from your other post is a reason why my PS cs3 is still going. and as for Wacom support (I can only speak for european branch) when their confronted with a problem they can’t offer any solution for they deny that anyone else is having that problem. Isn’t it about time Wacom wrote a drive that can work outside it’s own vacuum. I you had looked at their forum (which has been closed for a couple of months but has a sign saying it will be back in a few days) it was full of unrecognizable tablets for years and still they would on occasions deny and say no one else is having this problem) To tell the truth I’d dream of ps cs3 crashing at least that would mean that my cintiq was working (just kidding). Let me know if you here of a fix for this problem and I’ll do like wise.
Hope we all get this resolved soon.
Charlie
Sorry Randy, just a quick one. Have you still got your cintiq working in 10.5.4? or asm I just pulling out my hair for little reason? I’ve tried single user mode but no haxies or pixies for that matter are visible for what i’ts worth…….
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
I still have the Cintiq working on 10.5.4, albeit rather unstable. I would get the occasional crash, maybe a couple of days between them, the last one happening occurring twice in a day.
Are you having the exact same issues? Does your Mac Pro or Mac OS X suddenly crashes and go to the dreaded curtain of death right in the middle of working on something?
Randy