Does "not enough memory" mean I need more RAM?

[AndrewRW]

Hi,
I work with a relatively large database (over 1Gig in size), which is on a network drive. Trying to run some queries results in a "not enough memory or hard drive space" error message. I've got Win XP and 256MB of RAM. Do I need more, or is there something else going on? The person responsible for purchasing RAM doesn't seem to keen to do so, and scoffs when I say that I need more....

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[KenReay]

Hi

Well you may need more RAM, or you may need more disk drive space, when Access (or any other Db for that matter) runs queries it uses memory and disk drive space to build temporary tables to hold intermediate results etc etc, with large data volumes you could be running out of memory and/or disk drive space

But it could also be a badly written application, or a bug cuasing the problem, not to mention that perhaps you need to do some housekeeping on your hard disk drive and remove unwanted files, and /or reduce the number of applications you have open at one time.

So in short yes you need need more RAM, and given how cheap it is at present, that is not a big deal, but as a person who has in the past had responsibility for PC specification for users, I can understand the IT persons first approach of saying NO - some users (I am not saying you are one!) always want more hardware no matter what the have !!

Regards

Ken Reay
Freelance Solutions Developer
Boldon Information Systems Ltd
Website needs upgrading, but for now -

http://www.kenneth.reay.btinternet.co.uk

UK

 

[ETID]

Also, if you have vba processes running and they are not properly dimensioned, repeated runs of these processes will hog memory needlessly.

 

[rdodge]

Also, check your Virtual memory. The virtual memory should be set to start at 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have on the system.

If your system is extremely low on free space on the hard drive, you may want to think about cleaning the HD unless the HD is rather small. For Example, the HD size of the different hard drives that's on the various systems on the production floor only has 3.02GB, which is very small for running a W2K environment. I had to install the minimal of what was needed and still allow for about .5GB of free space, which in turn allows for the file page swapping to take place between the RAM and the HD.

The third thing to remember, Access DB files can only contain up to 2GB in size before it will falter on you. What I had to do to overcome this issue, I had to setup multiple BE DB files.

Ronald R. Dodge, Jr.
Production Statistician
Master MOUS 2000
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

 

[AndrewRW]

Thanks for your advice

Cheers! (and Merry Christmas)