out of system resources

[Penth]

My computer is doing this thing lately where it won't let me open a new program until I close one that is running...

But system monitor shows I have more than 1GB of ram free. What resource am I out of if it's not ram or disk space or cpu time or any of the resources I would think you need. Below is a list of programs running right now.

I have quite a few programs running... (14 items in the system tray including VNC server, SQL server, Google Desktop, MSN Messenger and many others. I also have 24 firefox windows (some with tabs) a few messenger windows, maybe 15 explorer windows, a half dozen notepad files, 10 IE windows, filezilla, a few SSH sessions and maybe winrar or something. Also I'll have a graphics editing program open usually...

 

[ta8689]

well wtf do u expect. its prolly your cpu alt ctrl del and tell me what your cpu usage is

 

[chairbornrangerx]

lol, um I have 12039021390983 windows open, but I still have memory free! lol oh boy... yeah bro, you should close some stuff down. How many processes does your task manager say you have running?

 

[Penth]

I've got 64 total processes open. My cpu usage is at 0-5% right now.

I know I've got a lot of programs open but it seems like I have the resources to open this many programs. Isi t that windows can't handle more than ~64 processes? Because my hardware sure seems like it should be able to.

 

[chairbornrangerx]

I honestly don't know the maximum # of processes or if there is one. But with that many running, it doesn't suprise me windows gets pissed and wants you to close one before opening another.

 

[Bozo Galora]

first thought is Anti-Virus/firewall/ program (or router misconfig), or any prog that auto connects to internet
shut them down and see what happens
alternately it could BE a Virus.(PC hijack)
XP was supposed to fix this common Win98 prob
All the crap you have open shouldn't be a prob

per the usual - you didnt mention HOW MUCH ram you have, or your pagefile size
You will have to run memtest 86+ from floppy for starters, might be RAM going bad
If install and run of Ram Saver Pro software fixes things then you know you have apps that have memory leaks

Process explorer software will show hidden processes
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Security-...y/Anti-Spam-Anti-Spy/HiddenFinder.html
http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Security-...y/Anti-Virus-Tools/Process-Master.html

Redo your O/S pagefile to fixed - 1024 min 1024 Max

You can manually disable unused MS services

there is a website that will THOROUGHLY scan your PC for process load, very good
http://mypccenter.com/MyPCProfile.asp
sample scan:
http://www.mypccenter.com/detailed_process.asp?ID=F96C868A6817C775397E8A

also.....
For those that have been having issues with hibernate not working properly on Windows XP SP2 desktops and notebooks, your fix is finally here. Mcft has had a fix available for quite some time, but customers could only receive the fix if they called Mcft's support line and explained their problem in detail. Some of the more resourceful folks did some "googling" (myself included) to bypass Mcft support and get direct access to the download.

For those unfamiliar with the problem, the XP SP2 hibernate bug affects machines with more than 1GB of RAM when trying to hibernate. Affected machines will display the message "Insufficient System Resources Exist to Complete the API" when trying to hibernate. Now, anyone can download the fix directly from Mcft's site (validation required).

 

[jackschmittusa]

When you open an app, Windows assigns resources to it, not only ram, etc., but part of a pool of Windows resources as well. Windows can only handle so much. Attempts to exceed that will be denied as it might lead to Windows crashing.