If I have lots of RAM why can't I pull in large data sets?

[Toby Erkson]

I have over 2Gb of RAM and over 13Gb of free hard drive space. So why can't I
pull in more data? I get an error stating that I don't have enough available
resources so close some applications (which I've done) or choose less data
(get real!). I open Task Manager and it shows that I have megabytes of RAM
and page file space still available! What gives? Microsoft Query gives the
same message, like when I'm getting external data for a pivot table.

Most of the time this isn't a problem but sometimes I have to pull a lot of
data but Excel just doesn't want to cooperate. I'm not pulling in more
columns than Excel can display, I know that. As for rows, that's hard to say.
For big data sets, yes to more rows, but that shouldn't matter with a pivot
table, right? Heck, MS Query sometimes will show less than 9000 records (but
there will be a lot of fields) and error out saying it can't display all
rows...WTF? Naturally, the data set bombs when used for Excel.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Is there some kind of cache adjusting I can fiddle
with?

 

[Alan]

I have over 2Gb of RAM and over 13Gb of free hard drive space. So
why can't I pull in more data? I get an error stating that I don't
have enough available resources so close some applications (which
I've done) or choose less data (get real!). I open Task Manager and
it shows that I have megabytes of RAM and page file space still
available! What gives? Microsoft Query gives the same message, like
when I'm getting external data for a pivot table.

Most of the time this isn't a problem but sometimes I have to pull a
lot of data but Excel just doesn't want to cooperate. I'm not
pulling in more columns than Excel can display, I know that. As for
rows, that's hard to say. For big data sets, yes to more rows, but
that shouldn't matter with a pivot table, right? Heck, MS Query
sometimes will show less than 9000 records (but there will be a lot
of fields) and error out saying it can't display all rows...WTF?
Naturally, the data set bombs when used for Excel.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Is there some kind of cache adjusting I can
fiddle with?

Hi Toby,

Sounds to me like you really need to be using Access rather than
Excel.

Is that an option?

Perhaps you could pull the data into Access, and then use Excel as a
report writing tool if that is easier?

HTH,

Alan.

 

[Toby Erkson]

I am using Excel for reporting. I am pulling data for reports -- charts,
pivot tables and the like -- from external data sources like Access and
Oracle.

 

[Jerry W. Lewis]

The error message refers to specific blocks of memory, not the totality
of memory on your system.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200581

The problem is not likely to go away until 64-bit Windows.

Jerry

 

[Toby Erkson]

Crap.

Thanks for the educational article. I'd be nice if they had a 'modern' one,
dealing w/XP. For example, I could find no resource monitor. Oh well.