Paintshop Pro V7 – Memory problems

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Hi

I am using Paintshop Pro to open WMF files for modification, etc. but keep getting an error message about memory limitations.

The PC is an Win98SE, 866mHz Pentium III, with 256mb PC133 SDRAM, and 2x 30gb Quantum HDDs.

The latest patch has been applied to PSP but this made no difference.

Any Loungers with experience of this and/or suggestions on how to resolve it. And, yes, PSP has been uninstalled and re-installed with exactly the same problem surfacing.

All suggestions greatly appreciated.

TIA Leigh

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Thanks for your response Ian, but we might have a problem posting the attachment here as Eileen has a limit of 100kb. The file I want you to see is 4.2mb but zips to 174kb.

The file was converted by PSP from a TIF to WMF and edited in PSP but cannot be opened by the same application. Strange!

Later: Tried but unable to attach the file because of size. Please contact me.

TIA Leigh

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I get this ‘memory resources low’ problem with Photoshop and a computer with 256RAM. The difficulty is Windows ceiling on RAM for programs – which is pitifully small, regardless of how much total RAM you’ve got. The solution is 2-fold:
Turn off any unnecessary programs running in the background by going to Start, Run, and entering ‘msconfig’, and press ok. Go to the StartUp tab and untick any programs that you don’t need, leaving systray, scanreg, and load power profile ticked. Restart your computer. You can always go back and re-tick them later if you need to.
Second, download and install a RAM recovery utility from one of the software download websites like Tucows, or Zdnet. I chose MemTurbo. These allow you to dynamically recover RAM by ‘defragging’ it and flushing out any unnecessary dll files left over from your programs. Works for me. You could also change your OS to WinNT or Win2000, which don’t have this RAM ceiling, and this would solve the problem forever.

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Thanks for your suggestions…

Tried using RAM Idle application to ‘free up’ memory but no change in problem. Can open larger .WMF files (4-5mb) without error message but some (smaller) files that were created in PSP refuse to open in the same application. Even if you create the document, close it, and then try to open from MRU list.

The system has 512mb of PC133 SDRAM and monitoring it shows that there is at least 400mb of RAM available, but still PSP refuses to open the file.

Have tried Irfan Viewer to check file as has Ian and I can open it without problem although the filter must be decidely different as it is hard to read the open document.

Thanks, if I find a solution it WILL be posted in the Lounge.

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Thanks for your suggestions, Mary – I’ve been having problems with low resources for ages now, mostly with apps that use the RAM and don’t give it back, so I decided to try MemTurbo – and it’s great! I sometimes just have it running on the screen while I work in a reduced window on the rest of the screen just so I can see the RAM figure going down then suddenly shooting back up as MemTurbo retrieves it! (I know, sad, isn’t it!)

You’ve solved a major problem for me – until now my only solution was a reboot!

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I confess it mesmerized me for awhile too. I love it and use it every day. Glad it helped you too.

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Thanks for all the suggestions… Regrettably, I have tried all and none have worked.

And then I stumbled across a solution that is simplicity in itself.

For ages I have just been clicking on the OK button when WMF file’s ‘Meta Picture Import’ dialog box appeared. Today, I thought what if I changed the pixel sizes to smaller values?

Original file was 4996 H by 6962 W and I experimented with different settings and finally opened the file when the height had dropped to 32% of its original settings (from 4996 pels down to 1600 pels).

The good part was that the file was quite readable whereas Irfan Viewer (which could OPEN the file without problem) was doing a simple translation of the pixel size to a much smaller value and the resulting document was less than readable.

I feel elated that I was able to ‘stumble across’ such a simple solution but I thank everybody for their efforts in trying to resolve this. (Special thanks to Ian and Mary.)

I hope this can be of use to others that have had the same problem.

Leigh

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