error reading or writing to virtual memory

G
Posted By
George
Dec 30, 2003
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738
Replies
11
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Closed
In the past few months photoshop crashes about 50% of the time with the message "error reading or writing to virtual memory" It usually does this just after I’ve tried to load a picture.

Any ideas on what should I be checking?

Windows XP

George
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memory read virtual write

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A
Auspics
Dec 30, 2003
Check you have enough disk space for the scratch disk. If you have, check the PC’s RAM.
Doug

"George" wrote in message
In the past few months photoshop crashes about 50% of the time with the message "error reading or writing to virtual memory" It usually does this just after I’ve tried to load a picture.

Any ideas on what should I be checking?

Windows XP

George

T
tacitr
Dec 30, 2003
In the past few months photoshop crashes about 50% of the time with the message "error reading or writing to virtual memory" It usually does this just after I’ve tried to load a picture.

This means Photoshop is having trouble reading from or writing to your hard drive.

This may be caused by a directory error on the hard drive, excessive fragmentation, or even a mechanical failure of the hard drive.

Run ScanDisk on the hard drive, using the surface scan option. This will look for directory errors and defective sectors. It may take a long time, but it will rule out these problems as the source of your trouble.

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G
George
Jan 1, 2004
"Techno Aussie" wrote in message
Check you have enough disk space for the scratch disk. If you have, check the PC’s RAM.
Doug

I have 8.5 GB left out of 40GB
The PC memory test that comes with the HP Pavilion tests ok. It includes RAM memory in the test.

George
G
George
Jan 1, 2004
"Tacit" wrote in message

Run ScanDisk on the hard drive, using the surface scan option. This will
look
for directory errors and defective sectors. It may take a long time, but
it
will rule out these problems as the source of your trouble.

Thanks. I’ll do this & let you know what happens.

George
G
George
Jan 2, 2004
"Tacit" wrote in message

This may be caused by a directory error on the hard drive, excessive fragmentation, or even a mechanical failure of the hard drive.
Run ScanDisk on the hard drive, using the surface scan option.

Yes, there is a problem.

I ran the surface scan last night and there were no errors when I got up this morning, but when I try to run Norton Disk Doctor I get the following message:

"Cannot obtain the physical disk characteristics of hard disk 3 and unable to test the partition information of the drive"

Hard disk 3 is actually a network connection to my old computer (not a hard disk). Could it have been set up wrongly?

Thanks

George
JG
James Gifford
Jan 2, 2004
"George" wrote:
I ran the surface scan last night and there were no errors when I got up this morning, but when I try to run Norton Disk Doctor I get the following message:

"Cannot obtain the physical disk characteristics of hard disk 3 and unable to test the partition information of the drive"
Hard disk 3 is actually a network connection to my old computer (not a hard disk). Could it have been set up wrongly?

I don’t believe Norton and such utilities can function across a network, at least not with complete compatibility and features.

If your problems stem from trying to write to a network drive, you’re probably running into data transfer rate problems and faulty network communication. It sounds from your description as if you have a relatively small "spare parts" network – it’s possible something in it is flaky or misconfigured. Photoshop really prefers to write to local disks for scratch use.

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DL
Donald Link
Jan 3, 2004
Just because it say 8.5 does not mean it is all usable. 80 to 120 gig drives are dirt cheap.

"George" wrote in message
"Techno Aussie" wrote in message
Check you have enough disk space for the scratch disk. If you have,
check
the PC’s RAM.
Doug

I have 8.5 GB left out of 40GB
The PC memory test that comes with the HP Pavilion tests ok. It includes
RAM
memory in the test.

George

G
George
Jan 4, 2004
"James Gifford" wrote in message
"George" wrote:

If your problems stem from trying to write to a network drive,

I’m not trying to write to a network drive. I’m writing to the main (C) drive. I’m trying to work out whether the error In the network drive is relevant to my problem or not.

George
G
George
Jan 4, 2004
"Donald Link" wrote in message
Just because it say 8.5 does not mean it is all usable. 80 to 120 gig drives are dirt cheap.

It is usable. Photoshop is the only program that kicks up when trying to read or write from it.

I already have a second hard drive (120GB). Space is not the issue. Also the network connection. I suspect photoshop may be trying to write to an illegal area on the main C drive. This seems to be what the error messages in the event viewer are telling me.

I’ll get there. It’s going to take me the best part of a week to figure it out though.

George
JG
James Gifford
Jan 4, 2004
"George" wrote:
It is usable. Photoshop is the only program that kicks up when trying to read or write from it.

PS is probably the only program that pushes around so much data in the course of working.

I already have a second hard drive (120GB). Space is not the issue. Also the network connection. I suspect photoshop may be trying to write to an illegal area on the main C drive. This seems to be what the error messages in the event viewer are telling me.

First, your scratch drive should NOT be the application or data drive, if you can manage it. If you’re running an 80% full C: drive, you should use your 120 as the scratch drive. The network connection is irrelevant, as you should NOT use a network drive for scratch purposes.

Also allocate more RAM to PS. I think the default under Windows is 50%. Make it at least 66%. You didn’t say how much RAM the system has, but if you’re working with large images with 256MB or less, PS is going to have to work the scratch area to death swapping data in and out. 512MB is a practical minimum for PS unless you’re only working with small images.

—
| James Gifford * FIX SPAMTRAP TO REPLY |
| So… your philosophy fits in a sig, does it? |
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JG
James Gifford
Jan 4, 2004
"George" wrote:
If your problems stem from trying to write to a network drive,

I’m not trying to write to a network drive. I’m writing to the main (C) drive. I’m trying to work out whether the error In the network drive is relevant to my problem or not.

If you aren’t using the network drive during PS use (that is, it’s not the source drive for the app, the data or the scratch area), it’s unlikely to have anything to do with the problem.

The app and the scratch drive should be local. Data can come from a network drive if the file access times are acceptable to you.

—
| James Gifford * FIX SPAMTRAP TO REPLY |
| So… your philosophy fits in a sig, does it? |
| Heinlein stuff at: www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah |

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