Out of Virtual Memory Error

Capt. Chris · Post by **Capt. Chris** » Tue Nov 20, 2001 6:09 am

I just installed SPWAW version 5.1 and have been getting a virtual memory error.

"You are within 5 MB of your virtual memory limit.", and then the game dies.

I have since upgraded to version 6.2 in hopes that my problem was resolved but it still happens. Any ideas?

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Tue Nov 20, 2001 6:35 am

Right click on 'my compter', select properties, and go to the performance tab and hit the 'virtual memory' button. If you *don't* have 'let Windows manage...' selected, try either selecting it, or increasing the amount you are using.

[ November 19, 2001: Message edited by: tracer ]</p>

john g · Post by **john g** » Tue Nov 20, 2001 6:53 am

Originally posted by Capt. Chris:
I just installed SPWAW version 5.1 and have been getting a virtual memory error.

"You are within 5 MB of your virtual memory limit.", and then the game dies.

I have since upgraded to version 6.2 in hopes that my problem was resolved but it still happens. Any ideas?

Are you using freemem.exe?

I saw this with v6.1 poping in and out of the megacampaign when I was saving turn by turn to test the yugo bug.

That has been the only time I have ever seen it, even when running mutiple news clients, internet exploder downloading files, and playing spwaw at the same time.

I don't normally have issues with memory since I have 192 meg real and a 256 meg static swap file.

How much ram and how big a swap file do you have?
thanks, John.

Capt. Chris · Post by **Capt. Chris** » Wed Nov 21, 2001 3:05 am

I am not using that freemem program.

I have 512MB RAM and I did have a 128MB swap file. Ever since I upgraded my RAM to 1/2 gig I have never seen my swap file used at all so I didn't think that would be an issue.

I have decided to let Windoze manage my swap file for now. I will post back if I see any more issues but hopefully this resolves my problems. Thanks for your quick responses.

eaube · Post by **eaube** » Wed Nov 21, 2001 4:16 am

It doesn't matter how much physical RAM you have, some programs will always make use of virtual memory. The most important thing to remember is that virtual memory uses hard drive space as RAM, and so if your hard drive is getting full, you will get 'out of virtual memory' errors. If Windows is managing your virtual memory, just make sure you have plenty of free hard drive space available. Freeing up at least a gig of space should certainly help, and may even make Windows run faster in general.

Arralen · Post by **Arralen** » Thu Nov 22, 2001 3:18 pm

Originally posted by Lack of Comprehension:
It doesn't matter how much physical RAM you have, some programs will always make use of virtual memory. The most important thing to remember is that virtual memory uses hard drive space as RAM, and so if your hard drive is getting full, you will get 'out of virtual memory' errors. If Windows is managing your virtual memory, just make sure you have plenty of free hard drive space available. Freeing up at least a gig of space should certainly help, and may even make Windows run faster in general.

With 512 Megs you can disable the swap file usage completely - and with Win95 oder '98 you should do so, as both OS' VCache cannot handle more than 512MB correctly, thus they run into trouble when they have that much RAM and try to allocate some virtual RAM as well.

Furthermore, you won't need more than 512MB with any prog I know of <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

And VCache is causing even more troubles - per default it uses all available RAM for caching.
Try adding the following to your System.ini

[Vcache]
MinFileCache=4096
MaxFileCache=20480

..this will set the file cache to min. 4 MB, max. 20MB; you may use the "Max" entry only as Win uses it almost exclusivly - once RAM is allocated to cache, it's never released again <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

You may check memory usage with "sysmon.exe" - it's not installed per default, but you may run it from your Win CD.

hope this helps

A.

john g · Post by **john g** » Thu Nov 22, 2001 4:39 pm

Originally posted by Arralen:

With 512 Megs you can disable the swap file usage completely - and with Win95 oder '98 you should do so, as both OS' VCache cannot handle more than 512MB correctly, thus they run into trouble when they have that much RAM and try to allocate some virtual RAM as well.

Furthermore, you won't need more than 512MB with any prog I know of <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

And VCache is causing even more troubles - per default it uses all available RAM for caching.
Try adding the following to your System.ini

[Vcache]
MinFileCache=4096
MaxFileCache=20480

..this will set the file cache to min. 4 MB, max. 20MB; you may use the "Max" entry only as Win uses it almost exclusivly - once RAM is allocated to cache, it's never released again <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

You may check memory usage with "sysmon.exe" - it's not installed per default, but you may run it from your Win CD.

hope this helps

A.

I think you will find that some software refuses to run if there is no swap file at all. When I went to 192 meg ram I tried and found that some games like C&C Red Alert would refuse to run if I disabled the swap file, they never expected this amount of ram and stubbornly demand that a swap file be there.

If you hav a swap file a fixed size min=max is a better solution. In your example setting both to 20480 will result in windows not thrashing the disk fragmenting the swap file. With a permanent fixed size file it stays unfragmented from then on.

That leads to better performance.
thanks, John.

skukko · Post by **skukko** » Thu Nov 22, 2001 11:07 pm

spwaw tested:: 6 megs free HD space with 256megs mem and runs fine. But 6megs is not much if you play pbems or do editing...

mosh

Jasper · Post by **Jasper** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 1:48 pm

Originally posted by Capt. Chris:
I am not using that freemem program.

I have 512MB RAM and I did have a 128MB swap file. Ever since I upgraded my RAM to 1/2 gig I have never seen my swap file used at all so I didn't think that would be an issue.

I have decided to let Windoze manage my swap file for now. I will post back if I see any more issues but hopefully this resolves my problems. Thanks for your quick responses.

Just for ur information, window is only able to make fully use of the memory up to only 256, more than that is useless unless u are using Networking......

SoleSurvivor · Post by **SoleSurvivor** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 6:51 pm

Only applies to win95 / early 98

RockinHarry · Post by **RockinHarry** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 11:04 pm

My SPWAW installment runs fine with 64MB Ram and 128 MB swapfile on PI200 computer.
Only if switching between Editor and playing a game in same session, I will be thrown to DT occasionally.

____________
Harry

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 4:15 am

Check out this article .

The second page has a few good tips.

parusski · Post by **parusski** » Mon Nov 26, 2001 1:27 am

Capt. Chris, I work in the computer field as a Network and database specialist. So I know a little about computers. I want you to tell me how much free space you have on your hard drive!
After you let me know I can give you more advice. One way to discover how much free hard drive space you have is to do the following: RIGHT click on START, select EXPLROE, then right click on the hard drive icon, go to the bottom of the menu that bring up and select PROPERITES. This will tell you how much space is available. I hope I am not insulting you if you already know how to do this. Either way just let me know how much free hard drive space you have. David