Out Of Memory Error?

[Ironman]

Hi,

So, it's been a while since I've posted sounds. first was the holidays, then I got a new PC. This is where the problems come in. Although this new system is light years better than my previous one, I am getting "out of memory" errors in Sound Recorder when I try to edit sounds, such as pasting clips together, trimming clips, etc. I never got these errors on my old PC, which had 5 times less memory, and the files I'm working with right now are only around 4 MB.

My system is a core duo with 4 GB of RAM, running XP. And before you ask why I'm using Sound Recorder, it's because as a blind person, it's the only sound editor I've found that doesn't actually require sight.

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome. Thanks!

[sc0tt-uk]

woo, nice system! I don't have a solution to your memory problems exactly but maybe this will help some.

A few weeks back I did a session pro tools opping for a blind engineer. This guy had alternatives for pretty much everything I could think of that he could use with his speech. For most of the work we were on mac so that's not gonna help you, but I saw him edit up a few files using a program called Goldwave which was PC based. He said it was also possible to use Soundforge but the later versions were getting crappier for blind people each release.

Anyway, I dunno what access software you're running on your new beast, but he had jaws and it seemed to work a treat for everything I saw him do. Goldwave looked like a sweet editor from the glimpse I got, so look in to it, there's bound to be tutorials or something online if it is indeed popular with the other blind audio folks.

Sc0tt-uk

[Ironman]

Thanks for the suggestion, Scott! I'll look into it.

[jedm72]

Hi Ironman.

I have worked on a number of machines for people with some form of vision impairment. In answer to your problem however - what sort of file format are you working with? .wav .mp3 anything else.

One main possibility occurs to me - since you are using relatively low file sizes you may actually have a faulty piece of RAM. It is unusual for the first piece to be faulty and have XP work ok - but I have seen it - so not impossible.

Second possibility under Sound Recorder you have a inbuilt limitation of 60 seconds as a recording time. If your audio length rather than the file size itself is more than 60 seconds this could well be the problem. This is a BS Microsoft numb nuts type problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q82215/ this describes a method of increasing recording time. It is a half assed way of doing it but MS fix for crap software again.

http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... BlindUsers
Here is a link for the Audacity program which is the only listed software I could find that was both "free" and also has support for visually impaired people.

I am more than happy to try and assist in any way I can - I am both a Computer Tech of 15 years experience and a Musician of 30 years or more. I actually design Audio Workstations for use in a studio environment plus other Multimedia applications.

If I had to put money of the possible cause I would go for the limitation of the software itself - but lean slightly to ensuring the RAM is ok and WELL SEATED in the slots.

I will keep checking back here periodically as I have been missing from the site for a long time.

Hope some of the above helps.


J

[shung421]

Ironman,
Are you able to quote the exact error message? Does it refer to "virtual memory" by chance?

[Ironman]

Thanks for the replies. The exact error is as follows:

"
Not enough memory available to complete this operation. Quit one or more applications to increase available memory,
and then try again."

I'm definitely not out of memory.

[mjj9994]

I get that at work sometimes when I have like 20 windows open... have you tried closing all the programs running in the background (right clicking on the icons in the bottom right corner and 'exit-ing them') and all other windows that are open?

Another thing may be to make sure you have enough disk space avail on the computer (1-2 gigs should be sufficient). Not a puter expert or anything.. just my 'trials n errors' that seem to work.

[shung421]

I found what sounds like the exact problem you're having on this blog:

http://forums.techsmith.com/showthread.php?t=4105

Notice the first post in the blog says:

I have a new XP computer with 4GB RAM. I have not been able to use the Microsoft Sound Recorder. Whenever I try to record, I get the message "Not enough memory available to complete this operation. Quit one or more applications to increase available memory, and try again." There are no more applications running.

4GB, same as you, Ironman! And a response says:

Computers fitted with more than 2GB of physical memory will return an error message saying there is not enough memory. This is a design fault with Sound Recorder and cannot be solved other than by reducing the amount of physical memory

The same advice is present the Wikipedia entry for Sound Recorder. Apparently the Vista version of Sound Recorder has resolved this problem, but I guess that's not much help to you right now! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Reco ... Windows%29

You'll need to have some memory removed. Too much of a good thing, I guess.

[mjj9994]

Shung did his homework.... nice job !!