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Computer problem:- Out of memory errors
3

Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

(OP)
Hi guys,

I'm having a bit of trouble in that whilst using a CAD program I keep getting an "Out of Memory" error.

The story is as follows:

Design Cad is a program which has been around for many years, and as a director in an electrical firm, I was required to carry out extensive design work in the form of electrical schematics and wiring diagrams.

I established my firm in 1975 and for those first tentative years, I persevered accomplishing any required documentation manually.

Towards the late 80’s, I became aware of the advantages to be had by using a computer, not only in the CAD area, but in the preparation of quotations etc.

My first computer was an, 80286 which whilst painfully slow, was like a breath of fresh air, compared to the manual approach.

The CAD program I used was a DOS based program, DesignCad ver.4 I never had any problems with memory despite some of the material being fairly complex and the limited ability of the 80286 processor.

Over the years I migrated through the 80386, 80486, to the present day, high speed, high capacity computers.

DesignCad went through various revisions, the latest revision I have is vers.18, however I still use version 4, due to the later versions having been revised, with the emphasis on the ability to interpret other CAD formats, such as dxf. and dwg. Etc.

The later versions do not have the dexterity of version 4, so I do my work in v4 and process it in v18.

Although I am now retired, I get requests from former clients to upgrade and re-issue their drawings.

Recently, I have been using a computer with 512Mb of ram, and the XP Pro operating system with no probs until the CPU went, due to a faulty cooling fan.

I have now acquired another machine, again with 512Mb ram, XP Pro operating system, and massive amount of hard disk space, and that is where I’m at now.


I have since upgraded the RAM to 2 Gigabyte, not believing it was a physical memory problem, but simply to take it out of the equation.

I believe this message is fairly common, but I am at a loss as to how to fix it.

Any ideas guys.....?

Thank you & Best Regards,

Norm.

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

How often do you reboot your machine? Our CAD system & Windows don't always play nicely and end up with a 'memory leak' situation so depending what you're doign you can occasionally need to reboot your machine a couple of times in a day.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

Is the memory error occurring with the v4 software or the v18 software?

If the v4 software is DOS based back from the time 286's ruled the earth, it may well be a 16 bit program, which severely limits the amount of memory it can access. It would only 'know' about the lower memory addresses, which may be taken up by your OS or other programs. Once it runs out of memory addresses that it can access, there is no more memory it can work with and throws an error. In this case, even if you increase RAM to 4GB (the most that win XP can handle), it won't solve the problem. Perhaps try running the program in one of the 'compatibility' modes that win XP provides.
http://www.howtogeek.com/172768/why-old-programs-d...

If the error happens on the v18 software, I'd contact the developer to see if there are software updates or possibly known issues that cause the error.

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

"Recently, I have been using a computer with 512MB of RAM, and the XP Pro operating system with no probs...
...another machine, again with 512MB RAM, XP Pro operating system, ...and that is where I’m at now."

Not much difference mentioned from the one that worked to the one that doesn't work. Other than the "massive amount of hard disk space", which probably has nothing to do with it.

Compatibility settings almost always worked for me, back in the early days of Win XP. So I'll 2nd that advice.

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

(OP)
Thanks guys, you've certainly given me food for thought.

Actually I re-boot quite often.

The prob occurs in DC. V4, version 18 is on another computer, but it runs ok on 1gb RAM and xp pro With no glitches.

Thanks again,I'll let you know how I get on.

Norm.

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

(OP)
Well guys, you've certainly opened up a new world for me with the "howtogeek" link, I've no doubt it will provide me with an insight as to what goes on in computers and how they think, and in the fullness of time, solve many problems.

My main computer takes so long to boot up, as does my daughter's indeed at one time she tossed a computer because it was so slow, now I've an inkling as to why..!

Thank you so much.

Norm.

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

There are also ways to run older operating systems on modern computers.
If your native computer has decent compute power and ram, but the OS configuration doesn't cooperate -
you can use something like VirtualBox to run an instance of another OS in its own little sandbox.
And you may be able to configure it (in its sandbox) to have the memory and other characteristics that some antique program needs.

If, for example, your antique software prefers windows 2000, you can create a "virtual machine", install and configure Windows 2000 on there, and install your software on that 'virtual machine'.
This also lets you reboot the sandbox machine without upsetting the system it lives on. Other programs can continue unperturbed.

Regards
Jay

Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm

RE: Computer problem:- Out of memory errors

(OP)
Hi Guys,

All sorted, I loaded a program called DOSBOX which is a Dos emulator and then ran DesCad v.4 , problem cured..!

Anyway guys, thank you for your help, interests and ideas, absolutely well done..!

All the best

Norm.

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