Question

"Out of Memory"

Asked by: julianmatz

Hi!

I have a fairly decent desktop that I put together myself. It's an Intel Core2 Duo E8500 with 4GB RAM running Win XP Pro. My paging file size is set to a constant 4096MB.

However, in the last couple of days I'm getting a lot of "Out of Memory" errors as well as some "Windows - No Disk" errors. It seems to have become more frequent since I installed Adobe Fireworks and Flash CS4.

Whenever I use 3 or more Adobe apps simultaneously (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash), I sometimes get these strange errors. I got the "Out of Memory" error when trying to run HijackThis.

According to Task Manager, my CPU load is at about 5%, PF usage at about 20%, and available physical memory is at about 1,715 MB.

What can I do?

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Asked On
2009-07-14 at 11:54:00ID24569845
Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
32

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Answers

 

by: joefreedomPosted on 2009-07-14 at 12:02:58ID: 24852927

In regards to your page file, i've always heard that we should set a custom variable for 1.5x the amount of RAM you have for the low, and 3x the amount of RAM for the high value.  Not sure if it is 100% accurate or necessary but maybe someone else will chime in.




Some other ideas:
"Out of Memory" error message appears when you have a large number of programs running:
Desktop heap in the WIN32 subsystem is depleted
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126962

"Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed:
reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-07-14 at 12:06:49ID: 24852969

I have seen this problem before and not found a permanent fix yet.

However, for an immediate temporary fix, try lowering the available memory to Photoshop.


   1. Choose Edit > Preferences >Performance.
   2. In the Memory Usage section, decrease the Let Photoshop Use percentage, and click OK.
   3. Restart Photoshop.

Here are some other optimization tips:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401088.html

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-07-14 at 12:08:36ID: 24852998

Hi joefreedom, I've heard that about 1.5x - 3x the RAM value thing aswell, but not sure if that is a minimum recommended value or an actual value it should be set to. I also heard from some experts though that both min and high should be set to the same value to make it constant and to prevent Windows from switching between the values.

I also saw those KB articles you posted links to but I couldn't really make much sense from them ...

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-07-14 at 12:12:15ID: 24853028

Thanks drewha1969, I will give that a try. It actually does seem to be Photoshop that's causing the problems (from what I can see so far anyway).

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-07-14 at 12:19:03ID: 24853096

As for the page file, there seem to be a few methods for finding the "right" size.  If you want to get really technical, here is a good article:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx


Photoshop is a memory hog.  It will use as much as you have.  
You could upgrade your RAM, but you would have to switch to a 64bit OS...

joefreedom's articles might offer a solution to help windows manage the memory better

Between hacking windows and controlling photoshop, you might get the results you want.  

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2009-07-14 at 12:24:44ID: 24853158

As for the No Disk error.... Does the below link describe what you are seeing?

Windows - no disk Exception Processing
http://www.consumingexperience.com/2007/11/windows-no-disk-exception-processing.html

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2009-07-14 at 12:26:41ID: 24853179

Feel free to post some screenshots of the Processes/Performance Tab.....

 

by: johnb6767Posted on 2009-07-14 at 12:27:17ID: 24853187

Also, in the Task Manager>Processes>View>Select Columns, and choose CPU Time and Physical Memory.....

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-07-15 at 11:31:19ID: 24862536

Thanks. I only seem to get the "No Disk" error when trying to start another Adobe app when Photoshop is already open. I do have a memory card reader and have to look into that.

Just now though, I was working in Photoshop, and when I tried to save something for "Web & Devices" I got the following error:

Error
The operation could not be completed.
Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.

I still have over 270 GB left on my scratch disk (C:) ...

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-07-15 at 11:38:28ID: 24862603

It's now causing stuff like OpenOffice to crash (just had a spreadsheet open that I had been working on for the past couple of hours), so it seems to be getting worse and more annoying.

I've already decreased the amount of memory accessible to Photoshop ...

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-07-15 at 12:55:44ID: 24863434

How much available RAM do you have before you start Photoshop and what did you set the limit for photoshop to use at?

Until I can find out exactly why this happens, keep reducing the available memory to photoshop...  Its a temporary fix.

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-07-15 at 13:03:43ID: 24863496

Also, how many drives do you have and how is your scratch disk(s) configured?

BTW, what size files are you working with?

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-08 at 17:58:32ID: 25052318

Aplogies for the delay. I've been on holidays for the past two weeks, but will be back on Tuesday. I will then be able to get back to my computer to try and fix this issue.

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-11 at 11:58:40ID: 25072179

Ok, back now.

I have one hard drive. It's fairly big but I think for better performance it might be a good idea to install a second drive and use that as a scratch disk instead of the C drive. Would that be correct?

Most files I work with aren't that large in file size. It is mainly for design of websites, etc. and only rarely work with large files when I'm designing a poster or something. I know that there are other tools for this type of work, e.g. Illustrator and Fireworks, but am used to Photoshop and can work pretty well with it.

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-11 at 12:17:50ID: 25072345

Yes, performance will definitely be better if the scratch disk is a separate physical disk.

Ok, wow, we have been discussing this for a while...

After rereading the posts, and you mention the problems keep getting worse, we forgot to check the RAM!  Have you run a utility like memtest86 yet?  Its possible some of your memory has failed, although it doesnt sound likely since you would probably get a blue screen and not just an app crash.  Still, worth testing...
http://www.memtest86.com/

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-11 at 12:23:27ID: 25072389

Another thought, have you checked your hard drive?

Run Check Disk

at a command prompt:
chkdsk c: /r

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-14 at 13:25:52ID: 25102003

Did a chkdsk. Took a long enough time, so didn't catch the result - i.e. if errors were found or not.

Will try the memtest also. As I recall, the test takes a very long time to complete. How long should I leave it running for? Or how long roughly will it take to complete?

Another thing I have noticed is that sometimes, when the computer is woken from stand-by or hibernation and when it comes back up, the graphics are totally messed up - as in there is multi-coloured fuzzy snow (for a lack of a better description) on my desktop and also on images in my web browser.

When my girlfriend's brother plays games on the computer (stuff like Anno 1404), some of them regularly crash - just terminate, without any error messages, etc. But I thought that sounded more like a graphics problem. The graphic adapter is an ASUS HD Radeon 3650 (I think) - PCI Express 2.0 .....

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-17 at 06:02:39ID: 25113878

You can check the results of the checkdisk in your event logs.  Right-click "my computer" -> manage -> event viewer -> application -> look for an event from "winlogon" (might not be the first one you see depending on how many times you have rebooted since then).

Well, if you do have a serious memory issue, it should occur relatively quickly, but you should be able to tell when it has run through all the tests at least once.  With the amount of memory you have, it should maybe take an hour??? Not really sure.

You can always try to update your video drivers...

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-21 at 10:40:58ID: 25154029

Ok, something strange when I go into Event Viewer -> Application - the last log entry there is from the 1. Feb 2009.

My system clock and Windows clock are set correctly.

All my video drivers are up to date, including the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

I left memtest86 running overnight, which came up with 14 passes and 0 errors when I checked it today.

Last night I also got a BSOD while on the Internet with Firefox. The message was:

BAD_POOL_CALLER
0x000000C2

After that, I was convinced (and actually hoped) it was a bad RAM module. If this was the case I could just replace it.

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-21 at 11:39:27ID: 25154552

If you can get Firefox to BSOD regularly on command, you can verify the RAM by leaving only 1 stick at a time and doing whatever makes Firefox BSOD.

Replace sticks until you get the BSOD and voila!

If you get the BSOD with all sticks in the same slot, repeat above procedure again with a different slot.

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-21 at 11:42:15ID: 25154568

If we still havent pinpointed the problem with RAM, try running the File Signature Verification utility.

Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System -> System Info
      Tools -> File Signature Verification

You will need your XP disc for this check.

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-21 at 11:43:49ID: 25154586

Nevermind, you wont need disc for that, I was thinking System File Checker, which might not be a bad idea to run either if we still have problems...

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-21 at 11:52:39ID: 25154679

No, I can't reproduce the BSOD. Plus I was browsing in Fx but I did have other apps running and I'm sure there was a handful of processes running in the background so I can't be 100% sure it even was Fx that caused the BSOD.

I ran the verification utility and have attached the output...

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-21 at 11:54:05ID: 25154694

If it was the RAM, would memtest86+ not have picked that up ??

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-21 at 12:08:10ID: 25154839

You would think so... but in my experience, hardware problems dont always make logical sense.

That short list is a good sign.  That utility just shows which drivers are not MS signed.  Looks like 2 Nvidia drivers and at least 1 Asus driver.  Have you tried updating all drivers for your motherboard?  Chipset, network, sound...

That cbg.sys driver looks like a Buffalo wireless NIC driver.  Is this correct?  Try updating that...

Honestly, I dont know the problem.  At this point I can only advise on things I have tried before and help walk you through the same solutions I would try in order to  solve the problem.  But, I have a hunch it is at least software related.

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-21 at 13:44:34ID: 25155643

Yes, you're right, it's a Buffalo wireless PCI adapter. The last driver was released on 26/07/2005, which is the same as mine.

I presume the nv4_* files are the the Nvidia drivers? They shouldn't be there anymore. The uninstall mustn't have removed them. I first had an Nvidia card that gave me a lot of problems so I changed it for an ASUS ATI card.

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-21 at 14:15:29ID: 25155910

Just checked the ASUS website. There seems to be a good few driver and BIOS updates so I will give those a go ...

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-08-21 at 16:49:41ID: 25156799

I was just about to delete the Nvidia drivers, but then I wondered - do I need to unregister them first or anything?

 

by: drewha1969Posted on 2009-08-24 at 05:20:29ID: 25167532

Hey sorry for the delayed reply.  

The Nvidia drivers may have been unregistered during uninstall.  You could search the registry for those nv4 files...  If they are still there, you might be better off downloading CCleaner and using that to clean up the registry instead of manually cleaning.

You should be fine just deleting the actual files manually.  

 

by: julianmatzPosted on 2009-09-04 at 10:03:01ID: 25261453

Thanks for all the help. I haven't had much problems lately with Photoshop, etc. Games are still crashing, but that's not a big problem for me personally right now. As long as I can do my work I'm happy. I'll install a second HDD for starters and see how I get on.

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