 Bunny Snow |
RAM memory “Could not import the clipboard because there is not enough memory (RAM).” This is what my CS3 program says when I click on an .xmp file. My husband says I have plenty of RAM and there must be something wrong with the wiring. I’m clueless. How does one lose RAM? And, short of buying more, how does one get it back? Thanks, Susan
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Todd Bennett |
Susan, What operating system do you have? Also, go to start, control panel, and double click on system and on the front page it will show you how much ram you have. Can you tell me what it says there?
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BetterPhoto Member |
Ah, the joys of owning a compuker. I would like to know what kind of computer you have. Some companies, most notably, Hewlitt Packard (who also builds Compaq), have the terrible habit of advertising computers with 1 gigabyte of ram (which, incidently, stands for random access memory) with more trial games and other trash than the computer can actually handle. The unit will actually have one gig of ram, but will have 880 megabytes of trash, leaving you with 120 megabytes, or 10% free ram. The only companies that I know of that don't do this are Gateway, who also builds E machine, and Dell. If you go into your defragmentation program, you can see how much ram you actually have. You should see two memory settings. your ram will be the smaller number. the hard drive will be the larger number. that smaller number will be in percent. This will be the percentage of ram you have left.
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Pete H |
As Todd has indicated, your OP system will play a major role here in how it handles memory. Adobe is a major memory hog! Plenty of RAM means nothing if your system is gobbling it up and not releasing it. 1) "Windows" and especially "Vista" has a nasty habit of using RAM and NOT giving it all back when you close the program. Really bad programming architecture..don't get me going! LOL Things to try if you are using Vista. 1)Turn off the "Aero" feature. What a joke anyway. This little GUI is enough to cause many programs to run like they are swimming thru mud! 2) Check your "cache" levels in CS3..If you are running too many, this will also eat memory. 3) Buy a program that manually or automatically "dumps" or "clears" the RAM. It's called "optimization". There are several out there. 4) Lastly; get a MAC!
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Bunny Snow |
Hi Todd, Thanks for walking me through this. My husband is out of town for two weeks and I'm transferring images to CD's as fast as possible. This is what the front page of System says: System: Microsoft Windows XP Manufactured and supported by: eMachines
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Todd Bennett |
Susan, A couple more questions. Does your computer have a seperate video card or is it using a video card that came onboard the mother board? I would imagine the latter from all that I've read about similar problems. Also, I would imagine it being an emachine that it is a desktop unit and not a laptop? You have what is indicative of a problem where part of your 2 gigs of ram is being used by the onboard video card. You are not able to utilize your full 2 gigs of ram because the video card uses part of the system's ram to do it's job. This could be causing the error message. Another problem is these onboard cards are simply not strong enough and powerful enough to do the job you are trying to get them to do. They are using resources from the mother board i.e. CPU, RAM, etc. which is not very efficient and can bog the system down. As Pete said, CS is a hog. I would suggest getting a seperate video card (Nvidia is my preferred brand). You'll want a video card that has a lot of on board memory. I wouldn't go any less than 512MB. I have one of the Nvidia 8800's with 768. I honestly would add at least another gig of ram to bring you up to three. I am not sure about XP Home Edition. I've always used Pro. I don't think the operating system is the culprit. I think it's the computer itself that needs beefing up a bit. I hope I have confused you too much. This is just my opinion and others may have differing advice.
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Todd Bennett |
Susan, I meant to say "I hope I haven't confused you too much." Sometimes the signals from my brain don't always make it down to my fingers when typing.
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Jessica Jenney |
Susan, do you have an external hard drive? That way you can keep alot of your images off your computer. You should keep the external hard drive connected to your computer and transfer images.
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Bunny Snow |
I don't know anything about a separate video card, nor do I know where to look. I'll give me husband this information when he gets home and perhaps he can take action on it. In the mean time, I'm transferring my images to CD's, so hopefully I won't lose them...unless my CD's are bad, too. What kind of CD's do you recommend? Thank you Todd and everyone for your help. And, Todd, I understand what you mean, my brain always talks faster than my fingers can write. And, sometimes one side of my brain is moving on, while the other side is just trying to catch up. ;-)
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Todd Bennett |
I've always had good luck with Verbatim.
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Nobu Nagase |
Agree with Todd, Verbatim has been consistently favored better by users. As far as the described RAM error is concerned, the cause may be of the few things. Other things you may need to do:
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Richard Lynch |
While there is a lot of good computer information here, the real issue is not the computer... "This is what my CS3 program says when I click on an .xmp file." You do not want to open the XMP file. This is an Adobe metadata file (Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform), and contains nothing that you need -- except data about the last time you opened the image it is associated with. The XMP file will just as likely not even be associated with Photoshop, so if you are trying to launch the file by double-clicking it, you may be trying to open a completely different program -- and that may be an issue depending on how that program is attempting to interpret the XML in the file. XML is Extensible Markup Language, a fairly simple configuration of tags that help categorize information. Instead of opening the XMP, open the image file (the extension could be a lot of different things depending on your camera type). Richard Lynch
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Bunny Snow |
Now, I'm now confused than ever. In class, Richard, you said the XMP was a side car. Ok. It contains the data about the last time I opened the file. Is there a reason I need that data? Or, can I simply delete it.
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Bunny Snow |
Nobi, you bring up interesting points and I'll discuss the first 3 with my husband when he returns because I don't have a clue of where to go to find this information. I don't reboot often, and husband, Bruce, has recommended that first off every time. Also, I, personally, have not defragmented the disk. I'll check with my husband on that also. All of you have been very helpful. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. In class, I believe Richard told me to get another hard drive. If I'm wrong, I stand corrected. My husband has another hard drive which he uses to back up our images. Mine are larger than his. First off, I need to move my larger images to CD's so they aren't clogging up the computer. That will free up a lot of space. I think it was easier to keep track of film negatives/slides than all this. ;-) Susan
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Bunny Snow |
Another question: What would make my scratch disk which was put onto F-drive (and is there currently) move itself to C-drive? There was nothing else on F drive with the scratch disk. This has occurred on several occasions when the computer told me I was out of scratch disk space. Thanks, Susan
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Richard Lynch |
Susan, Sorry, I didn't read the name and recognize it now from class -- I often answer without paying attention to the names as a lot of time they seem to be nicknames. Having another hard drive for storage is a good idea, as Photoshop DOES require scratch, and a lot of it. I have a 250GB hard drive as scratch -- WAY overkill, but I bought 4 at the same time and got a deal. A small drive (probably 16 GB) will be more than sufficient -- if you can find that size. The XMP file IS a sidecar file. You need it to remember the settings you used the last time you opened the original file that it is associated with. If you throw it out, all that happens is you don't have the previous Camera Raw settings. If your scratch drive settings have changed (and they can after a crash or deleting the settings file) you can set them back again in the Preferences. This is WAY easier than film negs....you never had so many negs ;-) Richard Lynch
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Bunny Snow |
Finally, success. My husband reloaded my computer after taking everything off and then installing piece by piece. It works a lot faster now. Plus, he just installed another hard drive onto my computer because of my compelling argument that when he's out of the country, I don't need something to go wrong with my scratch disk. Hence, I now have 500,022,378,496 bytes on my H drive, most of which will be used for class work. Currently, I'm making certain everything works before signing up for any classes or buying any software, as he's leaving for Sicily for Italian immersion in less than two weeks and I'll then be on my own. How many bytes does it take for plug-ins, such as Flaming Pear's Flood Filter or Photomatix tone mapping plugin? Thanks.
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Richard Lynch |
Plugins vary in size. I don't use any of them. Every one you add requires something else to learn. There is quite a lot in the base program to keep up with and discover. I would not suggest approaching the program plugin first, as often times you'll find that the program is already capable of what a plugin promises. Richard Lynch
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W. |
This may be more bad news, Susan: BURNED CDs and DVDs degrade over time through a chemical process called osmosis in their contstituting materials. I.o.w.: CDs and DVDs are NOT chemically stable. And what that boils down to is that statistically 95% of BURNED CDs and DVDs are UNreadable before they are 10 years old...! So don't make the mistake to think your CDs and DVDs will still be readable by the next generation! For security's sake I maintain a maximum 'age' of 3 years for my BURNED optical disks. Then I reburn them on new disks, or apply a newer form of storage.
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Bunny Snow |
Digital photography is fast becoming far more expensive than film. Unfortunately now film is becoming obsolete, so we cannot go back again. I found film negatives that were 20 years old but became wetted after minature tornadoes from Hurricane Lili topped a 60 year old/60 foot tall hickory through the bathrooms of my home in 2002. The film and paper images that were stored near the floor were wetted and the emulsion fell off the images. I guess nothing is forever, which means lots of deletion to keep the files concise and small for backup. Intense decision making is very difficult for me, I tend to keep too much. Oh, well.
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BetterPhoto Member |
I email my best prints to myself so they go into my email storage files. I have one email address just for this. I also have the memory maxxed out on my computer. But if, GOD forbid, I need to do a recovery on my computer, I can easily retrieve my images that I keep on my computer.
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Bunny Snow |
I've found saving my images on the computer is dangerous because the computer can crash. My husband generally backs up my computer at least monthly, but some of the files I'm working on are rather large. Therefore, I save most of my images, other than the originals (which are already saved) to CD's. Starting over with processing is just too scary --it would be days of work up in smoke!
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Richard Lynch |
Susan, I think we covered backup and storage in lesson #2 of my Photoshop 101: The Photoshop Essentials Primer course, and there are several options there. You can review that, I think, as you probably still have access to the course. BUT, I also blogged on the subject of backup/storage. I frankly don't worry about mine as I have the following: * a RAID array (total cost $150) On Mac, RAID capabilities and backup are built in...So it may be more to do this on a PC. My RAID writes to 2 drives at the same time without slowing the system response, so everything is backup up AS IT IS WRITTEN. This is all part of my 'ultimate system' which I blogged about here: Sure, it can be expensive...so can sewing, beermaking, shooting, model making, or just about any other hobby (or profession). With good backup procedures (which includes off-site storage of images), you can be virtually worry free about image loss. Richard Lynch
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