Low disc space or memory warning

At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no shortage
of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space. If I reboot the
problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if I ignore it and keep
on working, although I keep on getting the message, everything keeps on
working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.




"Ophelia" wrote in message
...
At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no shortage
of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space. If I reboot
the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if I ignore it and
keep on working, although I keep on getting the message, everything keeps
on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

Sounds like you might want to run a RAM memory test program to verify
that the memory is not failing on you. I'm sure others will have better
suggestions so I'll drop off into silence...

On 8/2/2014 3:26 PM, Ophelia wrote:
OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.




"Ophelia" wrote in message
...
At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space.
If I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if
I ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the
message, everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

"GlowingBlueMist" wrote in message
...
Sounds like you might want to run a RAM memory test program to verify that
the memory is not failing on you. I'm sure others will have better
suggestions so I'll drop off into silence...

We already ran a diagnostics prog and the physical memory is fine.

Thanks very much for that though.


..

On 8/2/2014 3:26 PM, Ophelia wrote:
OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.




"Ophelia" wrote in message
...
At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space.
If I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if
I ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the
message, everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/


--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

I'm sure you have already checked, but is the trashcan full and in need
of emptying?

On 8/2/2014 3:40 PM, Ophelia wrote:
An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.

Ophelia wrote:
OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.


At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space.
If I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if
I ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the
message, everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

Some of these situations, can be "tool specific".

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171276

For example, an email tool that uses a database format
that has an upper limit on how big the database can be.
It might cause an out of space warning, because the
database format doesn't have room. Rather than the error
being from the file system.

You would need to examine what processes are running,
and which one could have issued the message.

It is possible, for the OS itself to run out of resources.
I'm not denying that. But you've already checked resource
usage and not seen a problem.

For example, I can run the testlimit program from Sysinternals,
until it uses up all the computer memory. Then try to run
something like "dir" in a Command Prompt window, and the command
will fail because it is out of memory. So I can simulate
things like that. But a more believable situation, is a
specific application that has decided there is a problem,
and that's where the message is coming from.

If you use an email tool with a "compact" function, you
could try running the compact function to clean up
the database.

You will need to think carefully, about what software
is running in the background on your machine (such as
email doing regular status checks), to get a handle
on where this message is coming from. I'm not sure
that using Process Monitor to log every little activity
on the computer, would be very productive at this point.
Just looking in Task Manager, at what process pops up
when it happens, might tell you as much.

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Ophelia wrote:
OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.


At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space. If
I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if I
ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the message,
everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

Some of these situations, can be "tool specific".

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171276

For example, an email tool that uses a database format
that has an upper limit on how big the database can be.
It might cause an out of space warning, because the
database format doesn't have room. Rather than the error
being from the file system.

You would need to examine what processes are running,
and which one could have issued the message.

It is possible, for the OS itself to run out of resources.
I'm not denying that. But you've already checked resource
usage and not seen a problem.

For example, I can run the testlimit program from Sysinternals,
until it uses up all the computer memory. Then try to run
something like "dir" in a Command Prompt window, and the command
will fail because it is out of memory. So I can simulate
things like that. But a more believable situation, is a
specific application that has decided there is a problem,
and that's where the message is coming from.

If you use an email tool with a "compact" function, you
could try running the compact function to clean up
the database.

You will need to think carefully, about what software
is running in the background on your machine (such as
email doing regular status checks), to get a handle
on where this message is coming from. I'm not sure
that using Process Monitor to log every little activity
on the computer, would be very productive at this point.
Just looking in Task Manager, at what process pops up
when it happens, might tell you as much.

Thanks very much, Paul! I will work on this tomorrow evening because I am
off now and travelling all day tomorrow.

I will get back to you. Thanks again!

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

"GlowingBlueMist" wrote in message
...
I'm sure you have already checked, but is the trashcan full and in need of
emptying?

I run CCleaner and it gets emptied every evening when I close down so it
can't be that, but it was a good idea


--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

Remove the RAM and re-set it. Sometimes the connectors get dirty.




GlowingBlueMist wrote:

Sounds like you might want to run a RAM memory test program to verify
that the memory is not failing on you. I'm sure others will have better
suggestions so I'll drop off into silence...

On 8/2/2014 3:26 PM, Ophelia wrote:

OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.




"Ophelia" wrote in message
...

At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space.
If I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if
I ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the
message, everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

Remove the RAM and re-set it. Sometimes the connectors get dirty.




GlowingBlueMist wrote:

Sounds like you might want to run a RAM memory test program to verify
that the memory is not failing on you. I'm sure others will have better
suggestions so I'll drop off into silence...

On 8/2/2014 3:26 PM, Ophelia wrote:

OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.




"Ophelia" wrote in message
...

At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space.
If I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if
I ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the
message, everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

In message , Ophelia
writes:


"GlowingBlueMist" wrote in message
...
Sounds like you might want to run a RAM memory test program to verify
that the memory is not failing on you. I'm sure others will have
better suggestions so I'll drop off into silence...

We already ran a diagnostics prog and the physical memory is fine.

Thanks very much for that though.
[]
As Paul and John (not me - the one @keyboard!) have said in more detail
than I possibly could, it might be in effect something that doesn't know
how to use all the memory you have.

Are you always using the same software when that message pops up?
(Sorry, that's a simpler version of the question Paul's question
involving Task Manager asks.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"EARTH is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can." - Fortunes file

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Ophelia wrote:
OK it just happened again and the msg actually is:

An attempt to allocate memory failed. The system is out of memory.


At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space. If
I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if I
ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the message,
everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

Some of these situations, can be "tool specific".

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171276

For example, an email tool that uses a database format
that has an upper limit on how big the database can be.
It might cause an out of space warning, because the
database format doesn't have room. Rather than the error
being from the file system.

You would need to examine what processes are running,
and which one could have issued the message.

It is possible, for the OS itself to run out of resources.
I'm not denying that. But you've already checked resource
usage and not seen a problem.

For example, I can run the testlimit program from Sysinternals,
until it uses up all the computer memory. Then try to run
something like "dir" in a Command Prompt window, and the command
will fail because it is out of memory. So I can simulate
things like that. But a more believable situation, is a
specific application that has decided there is a problem,
and that's where the message is coming from.

If you use an email tool with a "compact" function, you
could try running the compact function to clean up
the database.

You will need to think carefully, about what software
is running in the background on your machine (such as
email doing regular status checks), to get a handle
on where this message is coming from. I'm not sure
that using Process Monitor to log every little activity
on the computer, would be very productive at this point.
Just looking in Task Manager, at what process pops up
when it happens, might tell you as much.

Paul


To all those who
were kind enough to respond!

There are some strange features to this issue. When the error message is
showing (even sometimes repeatedly). checking the system resource usage
shows that there is still around 50% = 2GB available.

Checking via Task manager on the applications and processes running shows
nothing of note that is unexpected or memory hungry.

Individual program, task and page limits are not being exceeded.

My husband is running a computer of the same age, disk and memory size -
just a bigger screen - and the same operating system and programs of the
same versions and doesn't get these issues.

We'll keep trying for a working solution.

I fear I am no further forward, but many thanks to all those who responded!

--
http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/shop/

Ophelia wrote :
At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no shortage of
virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space. If I reboot the
problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if I ignore it and keep
on working, although I keep on getting the message, everything keeps on
working. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ophelia

Get SysInternals 'Process Explorer'. It is free!
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

Run it from the .exe. Right-Click the .exe and Run as Admin if
applicable.

Right-Click the column headers 'Select Columns' and check the box next
to 'Command Line'.

Left-Click the col header 'Process' several times to see the various
sorts.

Left-Click col 'Private Bytes' and get the largest memory eater to the
top.

Look in the 'Command Line' column and see what app is hogging all the
RAM.

In the 'Options' menu, check 'Replace Task Manager'.

Ctrl-Shift-Esc will then open Process Explorer. You can always uncheck
that if you want to go back Task Manager (but why?).

Check out all the other SysInternals free apps too. Good stuff!

On 02/08/2014 2:56 PM, Ophelia wrote:
At least once per day I get a warning of low disk space or memory. Yet
according to the system resources monitor at the time there is no
shortage of virtual or system memory and certainly not of disk space. If
I reboot the problem goes away, at least for a while and in fact if I
ignore it and keep on working, although I keep on getting the message,
everything keeps on working. Any ideas?

Are you running Outlook Express? If so try the following advice. Even if
you're not running OE, the suggestions might help with any other program.

OLEXP: "Attempt to Allocate Memory Failed" Error Message
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171276

Yousuf Khan

In message , OldGuy
writes:
[]
Get SysInternals 'Process Explorer'. It is free!
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx
[]
Left-Click col 'Private Bytes' and get the largest memory eater to the
top.

Look in the 'Command Line' column and see what app is hogging all the
RAM.
[]
Check out all the other SysInternals free apps too. Good stuff!

Agreed on the last point (-:. But others who know more than I (e. g. the
other John) suspect it isn't something actually hogging memory (and
Ophelia has said there's plenty and it's not showing high usage anyway),
but something old that doesn't know how to use all the memory that's
present, or needs its own block of memory into which something else is
sometimes encroaching.

2
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"There are a great many people in the country today who, through no fault of
their own, are sane." - Monty Python's Flying Circus