Illustrator Memory Issue

[Willie...@adobeforums.com]

have a user who has been running Adobe Creative Suite 2 for well over 6 plus months now. Recently now when she starts up Illustrator CS2, she gets the following error message:"The operation cannot complete because there isn't enough memory (Ram) available." You click on ok and the program opens but won't run. When you close the program you get this error message:The instructions at "0x0034197d" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read". Click on OK to terminate the program. This is happening on just one Dell Dimension 8250. My first thought was to increase her ram so I added an additional 1GB. Now the machine has 1.5GB of ram but has the same errors appearing. Also, she started getting profile errors:Windows cannot update your roaming profile. Possible causes if this error include network problems or insufficient security rights. If this problem persists, contact your network administrator. I found that her profile was 12GB which is huge for a profile. In her profile under D:\Users\name\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 4.0\InDesign Recovery I found several huge file e.g. DBTmp30045623140 it was 344,088KB in size, another two were 442,392KB and there were more. After check with the user she didn't know what they were so I deleted them. This resolved the profile issue. However Illustrator won't work on her pc. If she logs into another pc Illustrator working fine! As I mentioned this just started one day! Can you help?

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Willie,

Try moving her AIPrefs folder to the Desktop; if this does not help, you can always move it back to restore the preference settings.

The folder name is (the path includes her username) ...\Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings. Seach for hidden files and folders.

[LenH...@adobeforums.com]

Willie,

Check how much disk space is available on the drive nominated as the
Scratch drive. A minimum of 1 gig, preferably.

If that's OK try trashing the prefs as per the Forum FAQs FAQ#2

[Willie...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob good call! This resolved my issue. I stop getting any error messages and Illustrator opened as it should. If you have a moment can you tell me what you know about this file? Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Len, thanks also for responding.

Regards,
Willie

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Willie, you are welcome.

The AIPrefs file holds many settings and preferences, some of which can be changed when Illy is open. In versions CS and CS2, some preferences have been moved from the AIPrefs to other files, including the AIWSPrefs (palette positions and other things) and the Startup files (default font).

Every time you open Illy, the settings/preferences are implemented, and when you close Illy again, they are read back into the AIPrefs file (whether changed or not).

Sometimes, the AIPrefs file gets corrupted (as does the AIWSPrefs), possibly because of some Windows failure; the corruption is a rare thing on Macs.

When you delete/move the AIPrefs file/folder, the file is recreated with the original default settings, uncorrupted.

In some cases, deleting/moving the AIPrefs file is enough, in other cases you have to get rid of the the whole folder; in some cases deletion does not work, only moving.

[Damien_...@adobeforums.com]

Greetings,

I am having the same problem Willie addressed. However, I cannot locate the pref file I deleted did not fix the 0x0034197d error.

Please Help

damien

[Damien_...@adobeforums.com]

Damien again,

I'm working on a PC with XP, I maxed the memory to 4026. I cannot import any pictures to illustrator and again I get the error when I close Illustrator CS2

[LenH...@adobeforums.com]

Damien,

>>I cannot locate the pref file I deleted did not fix the 0x0034197d
error.<<

Sorry, but what does that mean?

You DID successfully delete your preference file or you DID NOT?

>>I cannot import any pictures to illustrator<<

You OPEN or PLACE in Illustrator. What sort of 'pictures'? What
file-formats?

Please read through
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.eed5198.2cd0728e

before posting back.

[Damien_...@adobeforums.com]

I already took care of the error

[Stephe...@adobeforums.com]

Damien:

One of the purposes of this forum is to post solutions for others who also have the problem. If you solved a problem, please state which problem was solved by what specific solution. steve

[Natha...@adobeforums.com]

Ok, I would love some help on this if you could.

I have tried all the recommendations above, have re-installed, uninstalled/reinstalled, made a new profile and installed Illustrator but I am still getting the memory cannot be read error when starting Illustrator. I am not able to even get into Illustrator.

I am running WinXP, 250GB Main Drive, 160GB Secondary Drive, 80GB USB Drive, 2Gb of Ram, All Service Packs, and nothing drastic has changed on my pc to explain this error. I did install a few new symbol files, but have deleted them as well in trying to fix this.

Any ideas, other areas I could look? Am I able to change the scratch disk outside of Illustrator?

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Nathan,

I have tried all the recommendations above,

Did you move the AIPrefs folder to the Desktop with Illy closed?

[Natha...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob-

That I have. I move it to the desktop and then try to open Illustrator, but I still get the same message. Any thoughts?

[Sourabh_C...@adobeforums.com]

Hi

I am having a similar problem like Willie. I cannot find the AIPref folder you have mentioned in the solution here (which we are supposed to move to the Desktop). Thanks for your help!

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Sourabh,

If you have CS2 (or CS), the folder name is (the path includes your username) ...\ Adobe Illustrator CS2 (CS) Settings. Seach for hidden files and folders.

If you have 10 (or earlier), the folder name is ...\ Adobe Illustrator 10 (or earlier).

Nathan, only this: there is an AIPRefs (Settings) folder for each version and each user; are you sure the relevant one has been moved.

[Sourabh_C...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Jacob.

Thank you for your prompt reply. But I must honestly claim ignorance in this matter as to where I can find that folder. I searched in Program Files/Adobe, My Documents and Settings and some other places. Could you please give a little more detailed description, that would help me a ton! Thanks again Jacob. I am logged in as Administrator and I'm using CS2.

Sourabh

[Stephe...@adobeforums.com]

Sourabh:

If Jacob were still awake he would tell you that these folders are hidden and you need to turn on Show hidden files and folders-ON by checking it in Explorer> Tools> Folder Options. Jacob requires frequent naps in his part of the world. steve

[Natha...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob-

I did make sure it was under the current user and I'm still getting the error when starting up Illy. I'm quite confused and not quite sure what to do other than reformat the machine and start a new? Any other thoughts?

Thanks for all your help.

Nate

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Nate, this may be far out, but you may try shutting down any antivirus, keeping off the net off course, and see whether that makes a difference; Illy has an issue with some, especially Norton. Switch it on again, and let us hear.

Sourabh, what Steve said. Add 9 hours to the PST, and you have my time.

[Natha...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob-

I tried that and still no go. What I don't understand is that I have the old version of CS and it runs like a peach, but the new version doesn't want to? Since I removed the whole version plus all my preferences I don't even have those located within the Documents and Settings\My User Name\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings. All that resides in this folder as of now is an emply plugins folder. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks again!

Nate

[Bonnie...@adobeforums.com]

Hi everyone,

I'm so glad to see this topic addressed. I've been having a similar issue and it's driving me crazy. My specific Application Error reads: <<The instruction at "0x696355eb" referenced memory at "0x00000010". The memory could not be "read".>> I've been seeing this consistently for months. Uninstalling and reinstalling Illy fixes it temporarily but after I open a few files it goes right back to it. Eventually, I get to the point where just trying to open a file, any file, causes the error.

I thought possibly the error could be caused by the scratch disk size but I don't see where to set that. I've gone into Edit, Preferences, Plugins & Scratch Disk... the only choices I have are "Startup" or "C:" on the Primary and "None" or "C:" on the Secondary. I've set them both to C: but that didn't help.

I'm running CS2, have 2GB of RAM and plenty of hard drive real estate. I've tried to find that folder "AIPrefs" that you guys are talking about and have run a search of my entire hard drive, including hidden and system folders but there is no such folder.

It would be great to get this resolved. I missed the deadline on a $3,000 ad yesterday because I had no other software to produce an EPS file with and Illy kept crashing. Very frustrating.

[Bonnie...@adobeforums.com]

Sorry, on Aug. 11th, Jacob called AIPrefs a "folder"... I see others refer to it as a "file" so I found the AIPrefs file in C:\Documents and Settings\(profile name)\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings. I moved this file to the desktop but it didn't solve the issue. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Bonnie,

I was referring to the folder containing the AIPREFS file; the name differs, depending on the version (before CS, the name ends with the number, from CS on, the word Settings was added. Try moving the whole Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings folder to the Desktop.

Nate, have you uninistalled CS after installing CS2? Things get lost if you do.

[Bonnie...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob,

Thanks for the clarification. I tried moving the whole Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings folder to the Desktop like you suggested. But as soon as I started Illy and tried to open a file, it crashed. No error message this time... it simply shut down.

Know anything else I could try?

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Bonnie,

What happens if you move the folder back (with Illy closed)? Does Illy still just crash, or do you get the earlier error message?

[Bonnie...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob,

it still just crashes. But it does this. I've seen this same pattern each time I've reinstalled. Illy will fuss for a while and show me that error message, then it'll get to the point where it just closes whenever I try to browse to a file.

Now that I think about it... I seem to remember something in another post that suggested that once Illy has a problem (and generates the memory error message from trying to open a file in a specific folder) it "remembers" the folder and from then on, whenever you browse to that folder, it shuts down. I think that's what's happening now. (Because of course, all my pictures are in My Pictures.) Let me do some more testing. I'll let you know what I find.

Thanks.

[Bert Philippus]

I seem to remember something in another post that suggested that once
Illy has a problem (and generates the memory error message from trying
to open a file in a specific folder) it "remembers" the folder and from
then on, whenever you browse to that folder, it shuts down.

Kinda like after the first time you take your dog to the vet, he'll freak out every time you drive into the vet's neighborhood.

[Bonnie...@adobeforums.com]

You've got it Bert :)

Jacob,

I moved some files from the My Pictures folder into another folder to test this out. Things were working just fine until I stumbled upon a file that caused Illy to shut down. I played with it some more and it seems to be random files (can't really see what they have in common yet, one was an AI, one was a JPG, another was a EPS).

Here's another kink... I went back after writing the above comment to see if I could get it to duplicate the problem, I've been able to open each file in the new folder one by one and each has opened without Illy shutting down. This is getting really weird, not to mention annoying.

Still haven't seen the infamous memory error message for a while.

[Timothy...@adobeforums.com]

I experienced the same issues and error codes outlined in the beginning of the posts. I had trouble locating the correct folder as well and I am not a rookie. The complete path is - Documents & settings\my user name\Application data\adobe\adobe illustrator CS2 settings.

The other caviate is to make sure that FIRST you go into explore then...
tools - folder options - view - check the box that says <show hidden files>.

Thanks to all that supplied input. I had migrated a system with MoveIt and had two settings folders, even after install uninstall completely and reinstall several times. I moved both folders out as suggested and then open Illustrator with no apparent trouble.
Tim

[Natha...@adobeforums.com]

Jacob-

Hey there! I found out my problem with the memory error and unfortunately it did not have anything to do with the AIPREFS folder. For some reason I was having an issue with a certain font. At this moment I have not been able to determine which font it is, but one of my fonts was actually causing the memory error.

So here is what I did:

匹reated a Font Folder on the Desktop

桧pened up the FONTS folder(I am in Windows so My Computer --> C: --> Windows --> Fonts

百elected all the Fonts and Drug them into the Font Folder on the Desktop thus emtying my FONT folder

桧pened up Illy without any problems at all.

After Illy opened up I began to add the fonts back in alphabetically and I have yet to determine which one is the culprit, but I'm not sure I want to keep trying? I have a majority of the fonts loaded now with no problems so we may just keep it that way! :)

Hope this helps someone!

Thanks for all the help as well Jacob, and sorry it took so long to respond back!

Nate

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Thank you for posting this, Nathan. Some of us will remember next time.

But there is no reason not to load the good fonts back in: you will know which letter(s) the bad font(s) start with, so you can just drag it/them out again and subdivide.

If you find the font(s), let us hear the name(s).

[Kra...@adobeforums.com]

Hello, i just get this RAM error message on one of my network computer (xp pro sp2, managed by active directory), the error come using a simple domain user account but not using local admin account. So both accounts use same FONTS folder then i think it is a PREF problem... i will test tomorrow, deleting (with back up) any adobe preference... regards

[Jacob...@adobeforums.com]

Krapno,

The simplest way to start is to move the whole folder to the Desktop and back again, remember to close Illy first; if it works, you may then move individual files out to find the bad one.

[Kra...@adobeforums.com]

Hello, i confirm removing PREF folder resolve the problem. Enjoy users communities ;) bye

[Chris...@adobeforums.com]

This solved my problem too.