Final Cut Pro asks for AGP card on startup

Z

zeddeh

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I have an iMac G5, 1.9GHz, running 10.4 and I have just loaded Final Cut Pro 4.5 . Everything seems to have installed ok, but when I try to run the program it comes up with an error message "Hardware not found: AGP graphics card".

I find this perplexing since the same Final Cut Pro ran just fine on my G4 500Mhz tower. I think my iMac G5 has an ATI Radeon X600 Pro card.

Any ideas as to why it is looking for the "AGP card" or why it won't work without it? Is there any easy way to fix this? Is there some configuration in hardware or FCPro that I can adjust?

Thanks
 
Your iMac does not have an AGP graphics slot or an AGP graphics card -- it's all PCI Express now.

You can manually get around this by editing the Info.plist file inside of the Final Cut Express application and editing out the key/pair for the AGP card. There were instructions on how to do this on the internet not too long ago... I can't find them now, but will keep looking, and in the meantime, perhaps some kind soul will chime in with instructions on how to do it.
 
Zeddah, I am a kind soul now and then, but I don't have an answer for you! Still, I am really surprised that an Apple software product would require what is essentially a hack to run on a new/up to date Mac. It makes no sense and is just not right. Any calls into Apple on this? Maybe they would upgrade you to FCP 5 (if that will run okay on your machine)? I'm sorry, but this just isn't right and Apple should take care of you here.
 
Apple has posted an update to address this issue:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/download/ (for FCE)
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/download/ (for FCP -- requires login)

I did not know that since I do not use FCE that much, especially not on any newer machine that may have PCI-Express architecture.

I am really surprised that an Apple software product would require what is essentially a hack to run on a new/up to date Mac. It makes no sense and is just not right.
Click to expand...
At the time that Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express were written, PCI-Express wasn't anywhere to be found -- the only way for Apple to have programmed FCE and FCP for this was for them to see into the future... not very likely, considering I stole Jobs' crystal ball last time I had dinner with him.

PCI-Express is an extension of the PCI bus architecture, and therefore is seen by the computer as a regular PCI slot. Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express require AGP graphics cards to run, and in newer Macintoshes that use PCI-E architecture, no AGP bus is present -- so the software complains. Apple released updaters for the programs soon after, so that all legitimate copies of Final Cut Express/Pro could be compatible with Macintosh computers that use PCI-E.

Still, the updaters only update the newest versions of FCE and FCP (v.3 and v.5, respectively). If you're still using Final Cut Express 4.5, then you'll have to resort to the (rather simple) hack:

1. Control-Click on the Final Cut Pro application and select "Show Package Contents."
2. Open the "Contents" folder
3. Open "info.plist" with your favorite plain-text editor. Maybe make a backup copy first in case you accidentally save in RTF or some other format.
4. Change "AGP" to "PCI" under a string named "<RequiredIODevice>" or something similar to that.
5. Save and close "info.plist."

Optionally, you can also simply delete the line "<RequiredIODevice>" and the following line containing "AGP."

You can also use this hack in a similar fashion to run Final Cut Pro 4 / 4.5 on a G3-based machine... once you open the info.plist file you'll see how.
 
I really appreciate your help, I now understand (from a hardware viewpoint) why it wasn't working and doubt I could of figured this out on my own without experiencing much frustration...

Thanks for the links, I will forge ahead with this solution!

I hope I can be as usefull to others as you have been to me...

Cheers,

Zeddeh
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
Apple has posted an update to address this issue:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/download/ (for FCE)
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/download/ (for FCP -- requires login)

I did not know that since I do not use FCE that much, especially not on any newer machine that may have PCI-Express architecture.

At the time that Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express were written, PCI-Express wasn't anywhere to be found -- the only way for Apple to have programmed FCE and FCP for this was for them to see into the future... not very likely, considering I stole Jobs' crystal ball last time I had dinner with him.

PCI-Express is an extension of the PCI bus architecture, and therefore is seen by the computer as a regular PCI slot. Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express require AGP graphics cards to run, and in newer Macintoshes that use PCI-E architecture, no AGP bus is present -- so the software complains. Apple released updaters for the programs soon after, so that all legitimate copies of Final Cut Express/Pro could be compatible with Macintosh computers that use PCI-E.

Still, the updaters only update the newest versions of FCE and FCP (v.3 and v.5, respectively). If you're still using Final Cut Express 4.5, then you'll have to resort to the (rather simple) hack:

1. Control-Click on the Final Cut Pro application and select "Show Package Contents."
2. Open the "Contents" folder
3. Open "info.plist" with your favorite plain-text editor. Maybe make a backup copy first in case you accidentally save in RTF or some other format.
4. Change "AGP" to "PCI" under a string named "<RequiredIODevice>" or something similar to that.
5. Save and close "info.plist."

Optionally, you can also simply delete the line "<RequiredIODevice>" and the following line containing "AGP."

You can also use this hack in a similar fashion to run Final Cut Pro 4 / 4.5 on a G3-based machine... once you open the info.plist file you'll see how.
Click to expand...

Your hack fixed FCE 3 too. You helped out video production at a church tremendously. As Willie Nelson always sings "On the road again....."
I removed FCE from iBook and put it on my new iMac and got the dreaded no AGP card message. Livetype and sound track loaded and ran well but FCE was dead in the water. I found this while looking for a cure and registered to thank you. You guys rule!!!!!
 
a big thank you is in order. one small note. it may be wise to change "AGP" to "PCI-E". i ran into some brief trouble by just deleting the line as well as changing it simply to "PCI".
 
This isn't working for me. I've gone into Contents>Infoplist via Omnioutliner and changed AGP to PCI-E and saved the new file. However, afterwards when I re-open Infoplist the setting has retutned to "AGP." Has anyone else encountered this? Any solutions? Help!

Thanks for the great forum, by the way.
 
...and you need to change it to "PCI", not "PCI-E".

I know you have PCI-E slots, but "PCI-E" is an invalid entry. It's either "AGP" or "PCI". You want "PCI".
 
Thanks Ora, I'm trying to use textedit, but whenever I click the info.plist file it is automatically opened in Omnioutliner. Do you know how I can switch it to textedit? Thanks very much for your help. BTW, I'm running 10.4.11.
 
Thanks El Diablo, I will do so. Also, do you know how I can resolve the problem described in the above post? (info.plist file opens automatically in omnioutliner, which isn't working--I'm trying to use textedit instead but am having difficulty figuring out how. Much thanks.
 
Simply drag the plist file onto the TextEdit icon, or, alternatively, open TextEdit, then select "File > Open" and open the plist file through the "Open File" dialog.
 
It worked! I opened the info.plist in textedit, performed a Find for "AGP", changed it to PCI, then saved and closed. AGP Graphics card message is gone, FCP up and running fine. Thanks so much to all the contributors to this thread, with special thanks to ORA and Eldiabloconcaca.
 
When I try to capture video from my Canon XL2 (miniDV tape) via firewire I get a very long "Allocating Disk Space" wait (I'm capturing to a 75 GB Western external drive), then a Waiting for Time Code Setting message. Sometimes it just freezes, pinwheeling on the Allocating Disk Space message until I force quit.

Using a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook, 10.4.11, FCP HD 4.5.

Could this be a problem related to my older versions for both the OS and FCP? I very much hope I don't have to spend however much it would cost to upgrade both. Much thanks!
 
I'm having the exact same experience as everyone else. I tried replacing AGP with PCI. and then I tried deleteing the line that says "requiredAGPdevice." I'm still getting the same "Unexpectedly quit" error message.
 
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