Some of you may have seen my problem with Low Memory errors that prevented me from rendering a project built from a bunch of WMV files:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=733226&Replies=9
I found the solution, and felt this information is significant to warrant a new thread if not a sticky.
When I first started having memory problems a few months ago, I bought an additional 2 GB of RAM for my Dell XPS computer, for a total of 4 GB. I know that Windows 32-bit can't access more than 3 GB, but having the extra 1 GB didn't seem to make any difference.
I was telling a friend my saga last night, and he told me that Windows will not use more than 2 GB until you add the switch /3GB to the C:\boot.ini file. So I did that, and son of a gun it fixed my problem! Apparently this important information is not very well known, though I can't for the life of me understand why Windows wouldn't just use the extra RAM automatically. Sheesh! So now I actually have the 3GB of RAM I paid for, which is finally enough to be able to render.
This is the last line of my boot.ini file, to which I added a space followed by the /3GB switch at the end:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /3GB
So if you have more than 2 GB of RAM and your boot.ini file does not contain /3GB, that RAM is not being used.
I hope others find this useful.
--Ethan
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=733226&Replies=9
I found the solution, and felt this information is significant to warrant a new thread if not a sticky.
When I first started having memory problems a few months ago, I bought an additional 2 GB of RAM for my Dell XPS computer, for a total of 4 GB. I know that Windows 32-bit can't access more than 3 GB, but having the extra 1 GB didn't seem to make any difference.
I was telling a friend my saga last night, and he told me that Windows will not use more than 2 GB until you add the switch /3GB to the C:\boot.ini file. So I did that, and son of a gun it fixed my problem! Apparently this important information is not very well known, though I can't for the life of me understand why Windows wouldn't just use the extra RAM automatically. Sheesh! So now I actually have the 3GB of RAM I paid for, which is finally enough to be able to render.
This is the last line of my boot.ini file, to which I added a space followed by the /3GB switch at the end:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /3GB
So if you have more than 2 GB of RAM and your boot.ini file does not contain /3GB, that RAM is not being used.
I hope others find this useful.
--Ethan