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MP 7,1 Warning: Promise Utility completely destroyed my mac
- Thread starter chfilm
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Definitely true, though my experience in a production environment has shown me they appear in different places.
Thunderbolt support on Macs is much better than on Windows. I and others have experienced data corruption on Thunderbolt raids from Promise and G-Tech when using them on Windows. Same drives and files work fine on Macs. This appears to be only a file storage problem as I haven't experienced or heard anything about other peripherals. This makes me think Intel's Thunderbolt drivers for Windows are subpar. Not surprising.
Windows networking drivers are vastly superior to Macs and have been for a long time. When using multiple 10g NAS systems across multiple generations of Windows and Mac systems, Windows connects faster, generally has faster speeds, and stays connected indefinitely when compared to the ever changing hellscape of Apple's networking drivers. Until Catalina they had signing turned on which killed the performance until it was turned off using a hidden config file. Now that it's faster, there's a system crippling bug with FCP/Catalina that prevents the use of SMB shares for FCP libraries or even just media.
At least Pegasus units work fine on Macs without having to install the Promise Utility. I've personally never had problems with it but have heard mixed experiences from others. Might be better off not installing it until you need it for something, then uninstalling again.
No . But if your Mac works fine without the Pegasus units ( and their drivers ) installed ,then you just ID the problem .
Hi everyone. My first post.
I’m having the exact same issue.
Though not always, Premiere and After Effects do not work well at the same time.
If I start up After Effects first, then start up Premiere, it says this;
“Premiere Pro could not find any capable video play modules. Please update your video display drivers and start again.” It hangs then.
Both Premiere and After Effects are version of 2020.
Usually the system restart fix this. After rebooting, if I start up Premiere first, it reports no error and works fine. Then again After Effects has some issue this time. No video on view port.
DaVinci Resolve has no issue. Though If I start up Resolve first, and then Premiere, Premiere has aforementioned “no capable video play modules” issue.
Here’s what I found as a work-around.
Start up After Effects first with caps lock on. That should disable updating its view-port. After that, start up Premiere. I’m not sure if it is a 100% work-around, but it works for me at least.
My setup;
Mac Pro 2019
16core
Vega II Duo
192GB RAM
And yes, I’ve installed Promise Utility…
Overall, Mac Pro is working great. Very powerful and silent.
Though I think Catalina has some GPU driver issue. All the normal Finder behavior is kind of sluggish, say Launchpad, Safari’s page swipe etc. Especially video playback. I can see some choppiness of video playback on Premiere, After Effects RAM preview, even DaVinci Resolve.
I now started feeling the performance of Premiere and After Effects are slow.
I tried DaVinci Resolve and it feels so much snappier.
I’m thinking of a switch to Resolve on some small projects.
I’m having the exact same issue.
Though not always, Premiere and After Effects do not work well at the same time.
If I start up After Effects first, then start up Premiere, it says this;
“Premiere Pro could not find any capable video play modules. Please update your video display drivers and start again.” It hangs then.
Both Premiere and After Effects are version of 2020.
Usually the system restart fix this. After rebooting, if I start up Premiere first, it reports no error and works fine. Then again After Effects has some issue this time. No video on view port.
DaVinci Resolve has no issue. Though If I start up Resolve first, and then Premiere, Premiere has aforementioned “no capable video play modules” issue.
Here’s what I found as a work-around.
Start up After Effects first with caps lock on. That should disable updating its view-port. After that, start up Premiere. I’m not sure if it is a 100% work-around, but it works for me at least.
My setup;
Mac Pro 2019
16core
Vega II Duo
192GB RAM
And yes, I’ve installed Promise Utility…
Overall, Mac Pro is working great. Very powerful and silent.
Though I think Catalina has some GPU driver issue. All the normal Finder behavior is kind of sluggish, say Launchpad, Safari’s page swipe etc. Especially video playback. I can see some choppiness of video playback on Premiere, After Effects RAM preview, even DaVinci Resolve.
I now started feeling the performance of Premiere and After Effects are slow.
I tried DaVinci Resolve and it feels so much snappier.
I’m thinking of a switch to Resolve on some small projects.
Adobe Sensei uses machine learning to detect when you have a critical deadline, when you're really up against the wall and scrambling desperately for the finish line. Then it throws you a curveball, some kind of error or behavior that you've never seen before that threatens not only your project, but your entire livelihood. A focus study showed that this keeps creatives on their toes - in that Zen state of abject panic that brings out the best in people. I think they introduced this feature around 1994 - at least, that's been my experience with Premiere and After Effects.
Since typing in machine code into an old trash 80, I have never stored data with or on the same drive as the system. I have many stories too numerous to recall when I had to restore one or the other. My backup process is to back up to two separate disks data. Once I have a clean install of my Mac or PC, I run both, I make a bootable flash drive of each operating system. I don't backup apps, never have, since since I purchase the apps I can just reload and update. If your application allows automatic backup then look at that option. Otherwise get in the habit of saving your work often. Never work on a original file, always make a copy and work from the copy. If the copy is fine then use the file as the original next time to use it. There are many variations and methods to do what I do and depending on your risk management pucker factor adjust accordingly. If it's possible to lose your job or all the work just accomplished thru data or system loss then hoping for a quick solution in a forum is usually too late to save either. Good Luck.
I had a related experience to the OP with Catalina. I was migrating a 150GB Apple Photos library to a new MBA. The library format for Catalina is different from Mojave so it had to run a repair operation on the Photos library. It took a VERY LONG time so I thought something was wrong. I forced it to abort, deleted the library, and grabbed a new copy of the Photos library from Mojave, but there was one problem.
Mac OS was reporting that the SSD drive only had 50GB free even though I had deleted the in progress Photos library. Nothing I did could get it to realize it actually had 200GB free so I just wiped and reinstalled Catalina.
Mac OS was reporting that the SSD drive only had 50GB free even though I had deleted the in progress Photos library. Nothing I did could get it to realize it actually had 200GB free so I just wiped and reinstalled Catalina.
Installing Adobe CC software introduces alot of background processes designed to ensure licensing compliance and promote their business model. This software and its viral behaviour takes precedence , for them, over the smooth and efficient running of your system. I would advise all users of adobe products to remove background and CC processes from their computer if they can do without them ...
Update:
So I got an official mail from the adobe support, stating that their latest versions of CC are not compatible with the latest Promise Pegasus Utility app.
Insane, there are so many video editors who use these raids, and they knock each other out like this with no warning... and it’s so difficult to understand what the reason is because you wouldn’t guess that a raid managing software can interfere with the Graphics driver...
So I got an official mail from the adobe support, stating that their latest versions of CC are not compatible with the latest Promise Pegasus Utility app.
Insane, there are so many video editors who use these raids, and they knock each other out like this with no warning... and it’s so difficult to understand what the reason is because you wouldn’t guess that a raid managing software can interfere with the Graphics driver...
Same here: anything that has its own drivers you need for it to work on your mac is a serious risk of issues over time. I've sold hardware 2nd hand just because it needed drivers in the past. And now I simply refuse to buy it if I can at all. Vendor supplied drivers are a hassle you don't need on a mac.
Example of what I sold: 2 LaCie 8big raid arrays - they needed their software to be installed to work at all. It's simply not the "it just works" why you buy a mac.
Latest versions of CC are not compatible with any version of the Promise Pegasus Utility or not compatible with the latest version (ie could you roll that back to a previous version?)
Not compatible with the latest version of the promise utility!
i asked promise how to roll back but have yet to get s was n answer from them- in the meantime I just deleted the utility and it seems to work now again.
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Promise raids work without that utility, it’s simply needed as a maintenance and raid management tool, to check temperature etc.
is the promise raid utility needed for the pegasus j2i? I don't want to install the raid utility since I use After Effects!
AFAIK, no.
There are not even official firmware updates or utilities available for J2i, even though a firmware update utility is noted in their support documents:
There are available updates for the R4i:
The J2i doesn't have a RAID controller so the Promise Utility isn't needed. Even with a Pegasus, if the drive mounts you don't technically need the Utility outside of initial RAID synchronization ( only happens once ) and firmware updates ( happens almost never ).
edit : Don't know why they even make a Mac driver for download. Never had to use it as Pegasus units have always just mounted on the desktop.
The answer is NO. The Apple bundled Disk Utility and macOS is the only requirement for using the J2i and its installed HDDs. They are treated as normal SATA connected HDDs by the stock system. Just register the J2i with Promise to activate the J2i warranty.
The Clones are bootable, from your choice of previous times.
The Clones can be opened in Finder and files can be manipulated from there.
I downloaded CCC and after an email trail, loaded it. I ran it last night and it took 3 hours to finish. There was an odd message right before I hit the 'clone' icon about not being able to clone from an external disk (which I'm using) but it also gave an option to proceed anyway, which I did. Am a little worried that getting the backup from the external Seagate HDD might not work....
The OP destroyed his Apple. If he'd removed the Promise software at the first sign of trouble it would have been fixed.
The OP destroyed his Apple. A self-inflicted wound.