Posted by Genny K. on February 28, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Today, after working on a bunch of files, CS suddenly gave me this message. I was working with some artistic filters (Paint Daubs) and it first told me it couldn't finish doing that filter to a file.
Now, it will not even open a RAW file from my 1Ds Mk II, but it will open a file from my old 20D.
I have 2 GB of RAM in a 3 yr old computer. Before it started doing this, I was working on the MkII files and using several mask layers, and it was doing OK...........
Suggestions? Reload CS? Anything else?
Posted by John Mumaw on February 28, 2009 at 11:13 PM
Two things you can try--
To fix the problem right away, go to Edit->Purge and choose to empty your Undo, Clipboard, History States, or everything at once (All). They’re in the order you should proceed, so first try purging your Undo and see if that frees up enough memory.
Then later on for a longer term fix, go to Edit->Preferences->Performance. Let PS use 75% of RAM.
While you're there, select a scratch disk on a drive that doesn't have PS or Windows on it. That way, PS will have an alternative to RAM should you use up those resources again.
Then lower the History States to a reasonable number (5-10).
PS can require as much as 10 to 20 times your file size in RAM (or more!) to perform efficiently when it's saving history states.
John,
Thanks for the suggestion. I had already closed out of CS, reset the history states, and increased the memory % in Preferences to 80% after looking through the CS Bible by McClelland.
The baffling thing is this: it will open a 385 MB tiff file that I had worked on previously, but gives me the "not enough RAM" message when I try to open a Canon 1Ds MkII RAW file. Why is that?
I also tried deleting the old preferences file and letting it build a new one,and it did, but it still does not like the big raw files......
Of course, all this had to happen right when I had a big project to finish.
One other thing I just noticed: when I have it show the scratch sizes down at the bottom of the screen, it shows something like "600 MB/1.45GB". Is that normal?
I know that instinct is to raise the % of RAM available to Photoshop but you are actually better off giving it only 40-50% and having a second HD allocated as your scratch disk space. I learned that from a Deke McClelland tutorial on Lynda.com and damned if it doesn't work. I was having problems with 4GB of RAM and a high % set to be available to Photoshop. I changed it to Deke's recommendation and have had no more problems.
One other thing I just noticed: when I have it show the scratch sizes down at the bottom of the screen, it shows something like "600 MB/1.45GB". Is that normal?
Are you seeing this in the Performance window of Preferences? Those figures look like RAM amount rather than hard drive space.
Give Jim's method a try. I had always heard that RAM was a far better (faster) way to use memory than scratch disks, but he had success from advice by a well respected PS guru.
John, yes, it actually is the RAM... It's in the "Information Window" in the lower left portion of the PS window. Normally I have it set to show the document size, but there's also a choice they call "Scratch Sizes". The first number shows the amount of room needed to hold the open image in RAM, and the 2nd number indicates the total amount of RAM that PS has to work with. I was surprised at how big the first number was for a file that I had just opened and not done anything with yet.
OK, it's now the next morning. I had tried closing the program and shutting down the computer last night, but that hadn't changed anything. This morning, nowever, it happily opened a 1DsMkII raw file......
I'm not sure why it did this, but I'll treat it with kid gloves until I get this project done. Then I guess I will need to pursue having a 2nd hard drive in my next computer for a scratch disk.
Genny, one thing you might try is to increase the Windoze Paging File size. The paging file is a portion of your hard drive that is used by Windows when physical RAM is being used intensively. The rcommended, maximum, page file size 1,5 times the size of the RAM installed on the PC.
Right Click on 'My Computer', select Properties> Advanced tab. Next, in the Performance section, click 'Settings'. In the Performance Options box click Advanced tab and then select 'Change' in the Virtual Memory section. In the Virtual Memory dialog, set the Minimum size to the amount of your installed RAM and then set Maximum Size to 1.5 times your installed RAM. Click 'Set' and then OK in all the boxes. Reboot your computer.
I have some very large psd and tiff files. and on a couple I got an low memory warning. Adjusting the Paging File size appears to have helped.
Preston's sound advice reminds me....if you only have one hard drive, then don't place a check in the Preferences box that would have you choose it for a scratch disk. Having a scratch disk on the same drive as Windows (paging file) and PS does more harm than good.
Thanks, guys. I'll have to check what the paging file size is set to. And Preston, was that a Freudian slip on the "Windoze"? I think you meant it......
I also need to verify that Preferences box (I'm on a different computer now).
I made it through the day working on some decent sized files. I did get the low RAM message once. I kept the information window on the scratch file RAM size, and that was really quite enlightening. Clearly, for what I do, I need more RAM.......
Discussion
9 repliesNow, it will not even open a RAW file from my 1Ds Mk II, but it will open a file from my old 20D.
I have 2 GB of RAM in a 3 yr old computer. Before it started doing this, I was working on the MkII files and using several mask layers, and it was doing OK...........
Suggestions? Reload CS? Anything else?
To fix the problem right away, go to Edit->Purge and choose to empty your Undo, Clipboard, History States, or everything at once (All). They’re in the order you should proceed, so first try purging your Undo and see if that frees up enough memory.
Then later on for a longer term fix, go to Edit->Preferences->Performance. Let PS use 75% of RAM.
While you're there, select a scratch disk on a drive that doesn't have PS or Windows on it. That way, PS will have an alternative to RAM should you use up those resources again.
Then lower the History States to a reasonable number (5-10).
PS can require as much as 10 to 20 times your file size in RAM (or more!) to perform efficiently when it's saving history states.
Thanks for the suggestion. I had already closed out of CS, reset the history states, and increased the memory % in Preferences to 80% after looking through the CS Bible by McClelland.
The baffling thing is this: it will open a 385 MB tiff file that I had worked on previously, but gives me the "not enough RAM" message when I try to open a Canon 1Ds MkII RAW file. Why is that?
I also tried deleting the old preferences file and letting it build a new one,and it did, but it still does not like the big raw files......
Of course, all this had to happen right when I had a big project to finish.
Jim Bullard
Are you seeing this in the Performance window of Preferences? Those figures look like RAM amount rather than hard drive space.
Give Jim's method a try. I had always heard that RAM was a far better (faster) way to use memory than scratch disks, but he had success from advice by a well respected PS guru.
OK, it's now the next morning. I had tried closing the program and shutting down the computer last night, but that hadn't changed anything. This morning, nowever, it happily opened a 1DsMkII raw file......
I'm not sure why it did this, but I'll treat it with kid gloves until I get this project done. Then I guess I will need to pursue having a 2nd hard drive in my next computer for a scratch disk.
Right Click on 'My Computer', select Properties> Advanced tab. Next, in the Performance section, click 'Settings'. In the Performance Options box click Advanced tab and then select 'Change' in the Virtual Memory section. In the Virtual Memory dialog, set the Minimum size to the amount of your installed RAM and then set Maximum Size to 1.5 times your installed RAM. Click 'Set' and then OK in all the boxes. Reboot your computer.
I have some very large psd and tiff files. and on a couple I got an low memory warning. Adjusting the Paging File size appears to have helped.
-Preston
I also need to verify that Preferences box (I'm on a different computer now).
I made it through the day working on some decent sized files. I did get the low RAM message once. I kept the information window on the scratch file RAM size, and that was really quite enlightening. Clearly, for what I do, I need more RAM.......