Out Of Memory ' HELP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Minitman
  • Start date Start date
M

Minitman

Greetings,

I had a workbook that was 3.2 meg in size. I took two of the sheets
in this workbook and gave each it's own workbook. Now I have three
workbooks. The first is 988 k, the second is 1.28 meg and the third
is 527 k. Thanks to the help of the group, when I open the 1st
workbook, the other two also open - with a glitch! I am getting an
out of memory error message. I had 512 meg of memory in the machine
when the message first popped up. I shut everything I could down and
tried again - Same thing. Next I rebooted - Again, the same.

So, I shut down the machine and added an additional 512 meg for a
total of 1 gig of memory. I fired it back up and opened those
workbooks and guess what - I'M STILL OUT OF MEMORY!!!!

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice???

TIA

-Minitman
 
Hi Minitman!

Perhaps the prime culprit here is an over-full C:\Windows\Temp file.
This file and / or the area of hard drive it occupies is used by Excel
and is also used by many programs and updates during their
installation. The trouble is that over time it becomes full of junk
and this can cause the "Out of Memory" report on opening or during use
of Excel.



Solution.



Close Excel

Close down the computer and re-boot so that any incomplete
installations of programs or updates are completed.

Using Explorer, locate C:\Windows\Temp and select all files and delete
them.



If you feel nervous about a wholesale delete, you can always restore
them from your recycle bin or other temporary home.



In Windows 2000 and Windows XP the equivalent file is:



C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\local settings\temp



But there are quite a few other causes and here refer to:



Charles Williams

http://www.DecisionModels.com/memlimitsc.htm



A great site for all performance related issues

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.
 
It's likley not the physical memory of your machine that's killing you. Excel
has it's own internal limits that operate independently of any physical memory
considerations. See the following link for details:-

http://www.decisionmodels.com/memlimitsc.htm

You didn't mention what version of Excel you have, only if it's 2000 then it's
possible you may have a toolbar customisation file that's on it's way out -
Easily fixed if that is the cause, but what version are you running??
 
Hey Norman,

Thanks for the fast response. I am running W2k with Office 2000. I
tried to delete as many of the .tmp files I could find, I'm not sure I
got them all. It is still doing the same.

That was a good suggestion, too bad it didn't work! Any other ideas?

-Minitman
 
Hey Ken,

I am running W2K with Office 2K.

I tried this link and could not get in.

Please tell me more about this toolbar customization file and how to
fix it.

TIA

-Minitman
 
I didn't have any trouble opening Charles William's web page.
It works a lot better in Mozilla than in Internet Explorer (FWIW).
http://www.decisionmodels.com/memlimitsc.htm
I always indent web page URLs in postings
to keep extra characters from
interfering with the URL name such as > and periods.

You can find some of Ken Wright's postings on the subject:
http://www.decisionmodels.com/memlimitsc.htm
all words: xlb memory author:ken author:wright

Note the toolbars file (.XLB) is a hidden file make sure you
don't hide files and do show file extensions. Basically you can
rename the file and see if the problem goes away. Excel will
create another toolbars files but without your
..
Not the solution you need but might identify a problem

My own page on slow response and memory problems is
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/slowresp.htm
but it is oriented to strictly memory problems as is Charles'

More information on toolbars on my toolbars.htm web page.
 
Hey David,

for some reason, this link works when you posted it. <G> Must be
that extra space,

Thanks,

-Minitman
 
The toolbar customisation file was particularly problematic in Excel 2000, and
there have been a number of posts where people have encountered various memory
errors as a result of a bloated toolbar file. As Dave said, I would simply
rename it to *.old.

Try closing Excel and searching for *.xlb and renaming it to *.old (Excel will
just create another) - NOTE:- This is the toolbar customisation file and you
will lose any customisations as a result.

If this does fix it, then forget that file, but if it does not and you want it
back, just search again for the new *.xlb and delete it and then rename your
*.old back to *.xlb.
 
Note - this may or not be your problem, but is simply one of the steps I would
think worth trying.
 
OK, how sensitive is the data? Are you able to mail me the workbooks so I can
see if I get a similar problem when I open them on either of my machines, and
have you already tried this on another machine?
 
Hey Ken,

I Just reread my earlier reply and realized that I forgot to mention
that I took your advice and had renamed the excel.xlb to .old. That
and erasing as many of the .tmp files as I could find did not change
the problem. Sorry about the omission.

And now I am ready for the next step....

-Minitman
 
Hey Ken,

I hadn't thought of another machine! I will try that first and reply
back with the results......

-Minitman
 
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