The dreaded Out of Memory error - With a vengeance I've never seen the likes of.

[jwaguile]

It was about six months ago I first encountered the "There isn't enough memory to perform this operation. Close unneeded programs and try the operation again." error. This was also when I learned that encountering this error is a very bad thing, as it resulted in the corruption of my form, and worse, there is no way to get my form back. I had to re-do everything I had done since the last save.

The solution, up until now, has been to frequently use the Compact and Repair option. As long as I did this often enough, I wouldn't get the out-of-memory error.

And no, this computer isn't memory-starved by any means, the whole idea that I get an out-of-memory error baffles me...

...

And now for the point of this post. As of now, this problem has completely grown out of hand, I literally cannot work on this database for five minutes without the out-of-memory error occuring.

I have literally gone into design view on a form, viewed the row source of a listbox, then got the out-of-memory error when I tried to open a second form.

Point is, this ugly error is happening WAY too often, and I really don't know how or what is causing it in the first place. As far as I know, Access seems to have a fetish for corrupting itself, with the likelihood of the corruption happening being exponentially proportional to the amount of time since the last "Compact and Repair".

Yeah, so uh... hi?

 

[Banana]

Some statistics may help as well. How big is the file we're working with? Is the file split? If it's a split project, then how big is each file? And though you said it's not memory-straved, how much memory the computer usually have?

Furthermore some more troubleshooting just to rule out possibles:

1) Is it the only computer? Has it happened on other computer?
2) Does it happen in any other applications?
3) Does it happen for any operation? Or only for the specific steps you listed in your OP?

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Is it only happening in design mode? Is there a hidden form? Are there timers? Do you have infinite loops or recursive calls?

When you open task manager does the application gradually take more and more memory? What about CPU %?

Does it happen when you strip it down? Can you post a stripped down version (that still exhibits the behavior) for us to look at?

Just as a matter of record, I've been using Access since, well, I can't even remember how long but I've never had a corrupted file or form.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

i would be inclined to open a new blank database, and import everything into it, and start again

save backup copies of each version of your prog, so you dont have too far to back up in the event of a recovery being needed.

an obvious thought is that you might have an inadvertent recursion in your code - but i think this would give a stack full error, rather than the close progs error.

restarting windows may help - i suppose the memory can get fragmented over time, and if memory isnt cleaned up properly, you could get erroneous "no memory" messages

it may not matter but make sure you dispose of variables you have "set" in your prog.

 

[jwaguile]

Sorry about the lack of details, here we go...

This is in Access 2003.
The file is 8.3megs in size after a compact and repair.
It is one Access database file that pulls data from an MSSQL Server.
The computer has two gigs of ram, and is running XP Professional, SP2.
This has happened on more than one computer.
This does not happen in other applications. It does not seem that memory running out is the actual issue, in spite of what the error message says.
This is not limited to the specific steps I listed in my original post, this can happen when I'm switching from design to form view, from form to design view, trying to enter the visual basic editor, trying to save the database, trying to compact and repair. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, and I'm generally good at observing patterns :<
We do hide one or two forms on occasion, but this has been happening long before we implemented the form-hidingness.
We do not make use of timers.
I sure as heck hope I do not have any infinite loops.
Recursion scares me so I stay away from it...
I have not observed MS Access eating (leaking?) a significant amount of memory in task manager, nor have I observed the same with CPU cycles.
This is... a rather complicated database, I would even go as far to say that throughout all the googling I've done on my database problems, I've never seen another poster dealing with a database this complex. With over 60 tables, permissions and security and tons of rules and VBA programming all throughout the forms, it'd be a bit of a pain to strip it down and/or post a stripped-down version. Plus I'd probably get fired.
I currently do a compact and repair, and then make no less than three backup copies of the current version of the program, usually every ten minutes or less.
We did actually start going through the VBA code and "un-setting" the various variables we had set.

So now that I typed all that, I'll reveal that after I posted this thread yesterday, I actually found the source of all my problems about 12 minutes after posting the thread

Tools -> Options -> General Tab -> "Track name AutoCorrect info" and "Perform name AutoCorrect".

The name AutoCorrect option is what has been causing all this mayhem. I believe it may have been causing other things I didn't mention, such as my subforms appearing as blank white squares whenever I switch from form to design view, but not if I open the form in design view to begin with.

Before, switching between design and form view in certain forms would add over a meg to the database filesize every time (). Now I can switch 25 times, and the database stops growing in filesize after the first time, which is only on the order of a few tens of kilobytes of growth.

My conclusion is that, if you've ever seen those satirical images that are poking fun at Microsoft or Windows, and they have "Hidden Options" with silly things such as "Cause random errors and crashes"... the "Name AutoCorrect" option in MS Access is about the closest real life example one can find to such satirical options :<

Thank you lovely beautiful people for responding, I should get in the habit of helping others around here...

 

[Banana]

And you've learned why several people call it "AutoCorrupt"....

I'm glad you found the problem and solved it on yourself. That's a big accomplishment. I hope this sticks, and for future, make a habit to always disable AutoCorrect.

For your reference, though... Allen Browne has a nice article discussing about AutoCorrupt.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Obviously that's why I never have a problem like this. I don't use auto-correct.

Though I do work with some very large systems with hundreds of tables.

 

[jwaguile]

And you've learned why several people call it "AutoCorrupt"....

I'm glad you found the problem and solved it on yourself. That's a big accomplishment. I hope this sticks, and for future, make a habit to always disable AutoCorrect.

For your reference, though... Allen Browne has a nice article discussing about AutoCorrupt.

AutoCorrupt? That's hilarious!

Obviously that's why I never have a problem like this. I don't use auto-correct.

Though I do work with some very large systems with hundreds of tables.

Allright, you win, we don't quite have over 100 tables yet, but we're getting there...