I am trying to export a short film in FCP 5.1.4

Every time I try to export it gives me some kind of error. When I export as a self contained quicktime file it just closes FCP. When I try to export as anything else I get a codec error. Anyone know what I can do?

Reinstall, contact technical support.

Just be wary when you call technical support because they will only help with the problem for like 5 minutes then they want to charge like $200 for the rest of the call. I got out of it doing that because my problem was an actual bug. So you should make it clear that you think it is a bug so they don't try to charge you.