Your Computer is running low on memory - No audio playing video

revel · Sep 21, 2009

Hi. At this point i'm just curious what BS is behind this. Asus P5N-Deluxe Quad2Core 2.8 16gb DDR2 800 BFG GTX 280 Vista Ultimate 64 Enough space left on all drives I have a pretty decent machine. I have 16 gigs ram and its pretty rare that i use up all of that ram at once. Yet every once in a while I go to watch a video on my computer and i get "Your computer is running low on memory. Quit other programs, then try again." --seems laughable The behavior is that the video plays, but there is no audio (WMP) - But it will also not have audio in VLC or anything else - basically its like the issue is universal and the only way i can watch any video with any audio is by rebooting my system. It doesn't matter if i free up tons of ram (trying with 12 open right now, and no go). Its constant until i reboot.

Does anybody know what this is and how to get rid of it?

Frostmourne · Sep 21, 2009

Have you enabled memory mapping in the BIOS? Flashed the BIOS? Updated your video drivers?

Brink · Sep 21, 2009

Hello Revel, and welcome to Vista Forums.

In addition to the above post, double check to make sure that you have Vitual Memory Page File turned on for the C: drive and set to System Managed.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Buz · Sep 22, 2009

Interesting that I stumbled across this thread...
I've got an almost identical situation and problem; new build, first time with vista; Ultimate x64, i7 quad core, 12 gb ddr3 triple channel... ...nearly unlimited resources.

Although I've only gotten the "memory" message once, my audio also suddenly quits working for streaming video, news feeds, youtube, etc... ...even it works fine in Media Center or Media player.

I though it was just that my computer was too complex or that I was perhaps doing something wrong.

I would like to try the solutions mentioned, but I'm an "old guy" and not that knowledgeable... ...I'm especially uncomfortable when I'm in the bios without clear directions as to what I'm trying to do.

Could you perhaps expand a bit on how to check and/or change the settings you've mentioned? I'd hate to screw things up further.

Thanks,

Buz

Brink · Sep 22, 2009

Hello Buz,

Unless you are getting the "Out of Memory" error everytime you do this, then you may not have the same problem.

You can check your Vitual Memory Page File to make sure it is turned on for the C: drive and set to System Managed as it looks below on mine. Your page file size will be different though since it is based on how much RAM you have installed.

I would not recommend messing around in the BIOS yet since you say you are not comfortable.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

Buz · Sep 22, 2009

Thanks, Brink... ...I'll check that out.

I think I should have worded the "bios" comment differently.
I've spent dozens of hours in there; I'm just hesitant to change things unless I know what I'm doing. I've learned the hard way how easy it is to screw things up so I've become a little timid about making changes.

I'm not ignorant, just careful and uneducated in the ways of computers. I'm an old guy that got into it late with no formal training whatsoever. I'm entirely self-taught from tutorials and helpful groups like this (I Goggle a lot).
I'm pretty good at following good instructions.
If I know where to look and what to change I can get the job done.

This is the fourth computer I've built; have almost $4000 in it in parts and software alone (I filled out an extensive hardware profile when I registered but don't know what it takes for someone else to view it), so I'm not a total neophyte... ...it's just that it usually takes me a year and literally hundreds of hours to get things running smoothly:D

I would appreciate just a little more detail about the bios settings.

Thanks again.

zigzag3143 · Sep 22, 2009

revel said:
Hi. At this point i'm just curious what BS is behind this. Asus P5N-Deluxe Quad2Core 2.8 16gb DDR2 800 BFG GTX 280 Vista Ultimate 64 Enough space left on all drives I have a pretty decent machine. I have 16 gigs ram and its pretty rare that i use up all of that ram at once. Yet every once in a while I go to watch a video on my computer and i get "Your computer is running low on memory. Quit other programs, then try again." --seems laughable The behavior is that the video plays, but there is no audio (WMP) - But it will also not have audio in VLC or anything else - basically its like the issue is universal and the only way i can watch any video with any audio is by rebooting my system. It doesn't matter if i free up tons of ram (trying with 12 open right now, and no go). Its constant until i reboot. Does anybody know what this is and how to get rid of it?

Probably a fixed page file, that is running our of room

Brink · Sep 22, 2009

Buz said:
Thanks, Brink... ...I'll check that out.

I think I should have worded the "bios" comment differently.
I've spent dozens of hours in there; I'm just hesitant to change things unless I know what I'm doing. I've learned the hard way how easy it is to screw things up so I've become a little timid about making changes.

I'm not ignorant, just careful and uneducated in the ways of computers. I'm an old guy that got into it late with no formal training whatsoever. I'm entirely self-taught from tutorials and helpful groups like this (I Goggle a lot).
I'm pretty good at following good instructions.
If I know where to look and what to change I can get the job done.

This is the fourth computer I've built; have almost $4000 in it in parts and software alone (I filled out an extensive hardware profile when I registered but don't know what it takes for someone else to view it), so I'm not a total neophyte... ...it's just that it usually takes me a year and literally hundreds of hours to get things running smoothly:D

I would appreciate just a little more detail about the bios settings.

Thanks again.

No problem Buz. If your BIOS has this option, it should be a setting listed as "Memory Mapping" or something similar to it. This link at Microsoft below can give you some more details about it under the workaround section.

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

The BIOS must support the memory remapping feature. The memory remapping feature allows for the segment of system memory that was previously overwritten by the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) configuration space to be remapped above the 4 GB address line. This feature must be enabled in the BIOS configuration utility on the computer. View your computer product documentation for instructions that explain how to enable this feature. Many consumer-oriented computers may not support the memory remapping feature. No standard terminology is used in documentation or in BIOS configuration utilities for this feature. Therefore, you may have to read the descriptions of the various BIOS configuration settings that are available to determine whether any of the settings enable the memory remapping feature.

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

Brink said:
No problem Buz. If your BIOS has this option, it should be a setting listed as "Memory Mapping" or something similar to it. This link at Microsoft below can give you some more details about it under the workaround section.

The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed

I appreciate the all the help and direction, Brink...

I've read the tutorials in depth and followed the links to read more...

I've been through the bios and the Motherboard manual in depth, and can't find any reference to anything resembling "memory mapping"

But, after reading everything, I'm beginning to wonder if any of this applies to my problem...

Both tutorials refer to lack of memory; one specifically states the problem that I'm trying to solve as, "The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installed"

So I checked my system info dialog as suggested and found that it's displaying a ton of memory:

I checked my virtual memory, and my settings are identical to yours (except for size, as you noted). It did take me a while to get there; I thought that C:\pagefile.sys was an address, and kept trying to type that address into the "run" box. After an hour of doing that, it finally occurred to me that I might be able to get there through control panel. I didn't change any settings, since the tutorial strongly suggests not increasing virtual memory if you have "plently" of RAM (and it sure seems that 12gb of triple channel ddr3 should be "plenty"?

It might be better to restate my problem in my own words, just to make sure we're on the same page...

...sure sounds like the original topic, with the exception of the fact that I've only seen the "memory" message one time.

My problem is that after my computer has been on for maybe an hour after reboot, it quits playing audio from anything on the internet. It still has fine audio for anything from any file stored on my computer (recorded TV, Music, video files, etc).

As I mentioned earlier, YouTube and news feeds are perfect examples of what works fine after a reboot, but stops working after a couple of uses.

The "running out of memory" sure makes sense to me, but when checking system information as suggested in the tutorial (and this is after the computer's been on for hours and won't play that audio) it shows 7.7GB Physical and 19.8 virtual as available?

Then again, here's the stats from the performance page of Task Manager: (I don't know how to interpret them; does that show a problem?)

I have to admit, I'm a bit lost at this point

I just thought of some additional info about my system that might have some effect on what's happening...
I have two Sapphire video cards that each have their own on-board audio processing and output to my monitors through HDMI...
Each of those cards has it's own 1GB of memory.

From one of those tutorials, I got the impression that that somehow reduces my available RAM? (or is possibly detrimental?)

Brink · Sep 23, 2009

Buz,

I must admit that I'm not sure what it could be either that only affects audio coming from the internet when it works before, but not after an hour.

You might see if uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Flash Player (Programs and Features in Control Panel), resetting Internet Explorer, uninstalling and reinstalling your audio drivers may help.

zigzag3143 · Sep 23, 2009

Just passing thru How hot does the computer run after an hour?

lemur · Sep 23, 2009

Does all Internet activity cease after 1 hr. Can you stream audio from other applications (e.g., Winamp)?
Winamp Media Player - MP3, Multimedia, and Music Player

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

Brink said:
Buz,

I must admit that I'm not sure what it could be either that only affects audio coming from the internet when it works before, but not after an hour.

You might see if uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Flash Player (Programs and Features in Control Panel), resetting Internet Explorer, uninstalling and reinstalling your audio drivers may help.

So... does everything on the screenshots seem to be fine, and not an indicator of problems? Do they provide enough info that it would be correct to say that memory mapping wouldn't be necessary?

Its strange that it never occurred to me to try Internet Explorer; I've become somewhat of a confirmed Firefox user over the past couple of years. I'll have to try I.E. the next time this happens and see if that changes things.

The thing that has me bumfuzzled is that my problem and situation is so similar to what revel stated in the post that started this thread. (lots of resources; works at first, then stops working; works fine again upon reboot, etc).

Right now I'm about two hours into a fresh reboot and everything's working fine; but experience tells me that it's not going to last much longer. It's more of an irritation than a disaster; I've got a habit of keeping lots of windows open for reference during the day, so that will naturally use a lot of memory, but I've never experienced any problems due to my bad habits with my previous MCE 2005 machine that only recognized 3 gig of my 4 installed.

I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this.

JimJoe · Sep 23, 2009

lemur said:
Does all Internet activity cease after 1 hr. Can you stream audio from other applications (e.g., Winamp)?
Winamp Media Player - MP3, Multimedia, and Music Player

That is what I am wondering. Is this an internet connectivity problem ?

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

zigzag3143 said:
Just passing thru How hot does the computer run after an hour?

I've always been one of those people that hardly ever turns the computer off; I basically keep three running 24/7 (one is my wife's, and the other is an old desktop that I keep financial information on in duplicate files "just in case".

For everything except the video glitch, this one runs fine.
My main application for this computer (or at least my primary goal when putting it together) is Media Center dvr use, and video editing.

It does all of that nearly effortlessly...

I'm constantly recording perhaps 10 TV programs and news and sports shows daily, in maximum-quality High Definition when available... ...often am recording as many as four or five programs simultaneously so I can skim through them to catch what I want to see. (that's the reason for the multiple terabyte drives).
I also do considerable High Def video editing and processing for a number of reasons (both business and personal; two grandsons are heavily involved in multiple sports, and I sometimes shoot as much as 7-8 hours of HD Video per week).

I've had times when I'm recording 4 TV shows and processing/converting/editing video, and so far, I haven't been able to get this thing to stumble; I've never been able to get it over 60% of resources, even while heavily multi-tasking. It usually "coasts" along at under 30%...

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

JimJoe said:
lemur said:

Does all Internet activity cease after 1 hr. Can you stream audio from other applications (e.g., Winamp)?
Winamp Media Player - MP3, Multimedia, and Music Player

Click to expand...

That is what I am wondering. Is this an internet connectivity problem ?

Thanks for the interest...

All other internet activity is fine that doesn't involve audio; I've checked my connect speed many times when encountering the "streaming" problems, and get pretty consistent 10.6 to 10.9 mbps reports with up to 2 up.

Another thing is that I've found that I have no problem uploading to YouTube (in high-definition), for example, even when I have no audio when trying to watch what I've just uploaded.

I haven't tried that many audio applications, mostly YouTube and news feeds from various sources. The picture is excellent; only the sound is missing... I did, twice, go to HULU when I was encountering problems, and got the same results.

I should mention that no applications "stop" the audio in progress. If it's "early" and the audio is working when the video starts, it plays all the way through... ...the problem, when it occurs, will often start after a short AP video is done and I select another subject.

A week ago, when this problem first surfaced, out of curiosity, I went to Hulu and started a high-resolution, full screen movie, and it played flawlessly for almost two hours...

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

One thing that is interesting...

Today, my "problem" seems to have disappeared (I can only hope its not an anomaly).

I've now had the computer on for over four hours, and between posts, I've been checking both YouTube and various news feeds.
So far, (knock on wood) everything is working as it should.
While typing this, I've opened both a Yahoo AP news feed and YouTube new video simultaneously, and both are playing successfully. ??????

To my knowledge, I haven't changed a thing since yesterday when I was again having my regular problems. (I did shut down the computer at 6am this morning after working it all night, and let it rest for a couple of hours while I took a nap, and restarted it fresh this morning... ...but I've done that a number of times in the past and the fresh reboot didn't last beyond an hour or so.

I have no explanation why it seems to be working perfectly now.

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

Buz said:
Its strange that it never occurred to me to try Internet Explorer; I've become somewhat of a confirmed Firefox user over the past couple of years. I'll have to try I.E. the next time this happens and see if that changes things.

This is off topic a bit, but it looks like I might be going back to Internet Explorer:D One advantage of subscribing to news feeds is that you sometimes stumble across some useful information: Check this out

I'm about to learn a new browser all over again

JimJoe · Sep 23, 2009

Well, computers can randomly hiccup. And work the next day like nothing happened. I don't see that too often recently though.

Buz · Sep 23, 2009

zigzag3143 said:
Just passing thru How hot does the computer run after an hour?

Sorry, zigzag, I misread your question... ...I missed the word "hot" and my long answer wasn't very responsive to a simple question :confused:

I'm a "cooling nut"; nothing ever gets warm inside the case. CPU temps barely rise above startup temperatures.

One reason I chose the Antec case that I did was its superb airflow and compartments that really aid in the cooling. The entire front of the case, behind a sound-insulated door, is removable filters fed by a series of air intakes. The psu is in its own lower compartment with "flow through" venelation.
The Antec psu has it's own multi-speed thermostatically-controlled fan, and I added a 120mm tri-cool in the front of the compartment blowing on the 4 hard drives in that compartment and somewhat pressurizing that compartment. Neither fan ever goes above the lowest speed no matter how hard I use it, and since that compartment is somewhat sealed and insulated, none of that heat makes it into the main compartment above.

The upper compartment is somewhat wireless (the Antec case has a cable area behind the motherboard that almost eliminates clutter, so that compartment is also almost clear of cable interference. Both of the video cards have their own multi-speed fans, and they also stay on "low"...

I've got a huge Zalman cpu cooler with it's own 120mm fan that pulls cooling air through a series of heat pipes and exhausts it upward directly into a third 120mm Antec tri-cool in the top of the case. There's three more 120mm Antec tri-cools: one exhaust in the rear of the case, one intake in the upper chamber, and one intake in the front blowing on the upper hard drive tray.

So it's got filtered air coming in and lots of exhaust...
Antec did a fantastic job on noise isolation with some baffled air flow, triple-layer case walls, and silicone mounting for all components.

With a total of nine fans running all the time at their lowest speeds, this is actually the quietest of the four desktops I own; in fact, the noise is less noticable than my laptop on the coffee table in the same room.

The case comes with grommets for liquid cooling, but the noise level and temps are so low that I can't imagine wanting to look into it.

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