Insufficient Resources - Family Tree Maker

Lately, my wife's computer (Dell 4600, 2.8P4, Memory 1024 MB, 144GB HD free space) occasionally displays an error message while using Family Tree Maker (FTM) 6.0. The message: "Not enough resources are available to complete this operation. Please close other applications, then try again ". The only applications running at the time were FTM, one IE window, Outlook Express, and MailWasher. However, there were about 40 or so Processes running.

I tried to open Task Manager to look at resources at the time of the event, but was unable to get it to open until I closed out the FTM error message and then the program itself. Under normal operations, iexlplore.exe is the biggest Process resource hog at 34,000K. SVCHost.exe has seven separate processes listed ranging from 28,000K down to about 3,000K. AVG uses quite a bit at 23,000K. CPU usage normally shows 2 or 3% and PF usage is 300 to 400 MB. I have noted a significant spike on the Performance graphs when I open FTM - but I notice an even bigger spike when I open Task Manager.

Is there any action I can/should take to remedy this situation? Usually we can close out FTM and then reopen it and all is well. Never any lost data - mainly an annoyance but could be an indicator of things to come. I do have WinPatrol operating but I don't know enough about using it nor do I know a lot about Processes that I could kill or remove.



LATE NOTE - I contacted FTM and the only suggestion they offered was to decrease the size of the font - our FTM version is no longer supported.

 

You can lookup the apps/processes running via links contained in this thread:

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=39425

Also went looking for this condition using Insufficient Resources as the search phrase, and as you can see, its associated with specific apps that don't handle files efficiently.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+Insufficient+Resources+&btnG=Google+Search

Regards - Charles

 

Charles,

Thanks for the link to your Jan 2005 post. I think I had bookmarked that post - but my bookmarks have a habit of fading into oblivion. In other words, I don't name and organize my bookmarks very well. I looked at the links and I'm sure that I wil solve my issue by doing some methodical research. My fear has always been in disabling/removing something I shouldn't. Your links should give me the information to make the logical decisions.

I had Googled some terms similar to what you used and came up with some of the same results. Didn't find anything specific to the FTM program but the theme of most of them is to cull out the unnecessary stuff - that some applications don't respond well to pressure - just like humans.

I will post back after I have worked the issue. Thanks.

 

In looking for the location of another security application's forum, found WinPatrol's here: http://www.castlecops.com/f105-WinPatrol_Talk.html

Regards - Charles

 

Charles,

Thanks for the additional link to KastleKops. My progress has been slow because I am trying to educate myself on all these processes as I go along. I started with the biggest resource users first and think I have had some success as my wife hasn't gotten the "low resource" message in several days.

I am creating a spreadsheet of all these processes as I research them for future reference. It is an interesting project and I thank you for your help. So I guess that, unless the message pops up again, we can assume that my problem has been resolved.

 

Robert

Here is a very interesting discussion about resources.

I don't know if FTM is a 16 bit program or not. As a user of FTM6 I notice I could never put photographs in the scrapbook as jpeg. I had to use .bmp or some such.

In the article, it makes a mention of bitmaps.....

I am in the process of changing all my genealogy stuff to PAF 5 and so far I like it.

 

Bill,

Thanks for the additional post. Although I don't understand the nuances of 16bit, 32, 64, I did gather from the article that a 16bit program appears to be operate somewhat independently of other programs regarding resources and can use all that is available to it and other 16 bit programs while all the 32 and 64 bit programs appear to continue to operate with no problem. And the longer one keeps a 16 bit program open the more apt it is to use up it's allotment. That is how my wife's program seems to operate - it only freezes after she has used it for an exceedingly long time. If the problem pops up again, we may try closing and reopening the program occasionally to see if that would work. Don't know if reboot would be necessary but I could throw that in the mix as well. So, perhaps I have been on the wrong track looking at startups and trying to reduce those. Not a problem though because I have picked up some new knowledge and insights in that area thanks to Charles.

As a side note regarding photos in FTM, I did put photos in the program several years ago and because they seemed to bloat the system and slow everything down I removed them. When I noted that the file size didn't change when I removed the photos, I contacted FTM. They had to give me a special procedure for completely removing the photos because a glitch in the program kept the space allocated to the photos and this was before the days of Mega Giga hard drives.

Later Edit - Is there any way to tell if a program is 16bit. I looked in the program and in the User's Manual but couldn't find anything.

 

Later Edit - Is there any way to tell if a program is 16bit

In FTM 9- Go to help menu then system information, at the botom of screen there run go to systen etitor , look at screen windows / win.uni it should sap 16 bit, don't know if ftm 6 is the same though
tom

 

tmarks,

Thanks. Found it. It is 16 bit. I had looked at the System Editor under the Help menu previously but I didn't look at the individual screens . The information was on the one you indicated (and don't worry, I didn't mess around with anything while I was there).

 

Glad i could help
tom