Win7 64 shutting down win32 programs using large amounts of memory
Hi, I am trying to use two different win32 utilities that convert large dataset files from a proprietary format (SAS) to delimited .txt. One is command line utility, the other a GUI utility from SAS (not supported by them, last version 2000) Both work fine for files of at least 1.8GB, but when trying to convert larger files (2.5-3GB) I can see that both utilities are attempting to load the whole thing into memory (memory bar in task manager rises fast), but when the memory bar is closing in on 3GB, I get an error from Win7 saying the program stopped working, and Win7 kills the process. Is there anything I can do? Is this a limitation because the software is win32 and can't address anything above the 3GB limit? Or is there something (settings or other) that I can do? Thanks, Thor
August 6th, 2010 6:24pm

Hi Thorl, According to my understanding, your computer cannot afford larger files converting. Based on my experience, Mostly, it’s related to your memory amount, it also depends on the software which you are using. Window 32-bit or 64-bit maybe not an answer. If possible, please let me know the software name. I will do local testing on my side and give the suggestion later. Hope it can help you! Regards, Miya Yao This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 11th, 2010 8:49am

Thanks, the reason I asked this question is that I have one more GB of memory free when both programs fail. Both fail close to 3GB of used memory, and I was wondering if this was because of Win32 inability to address more than 3GB of RAM. I have Win7 64 running, and was hoping to make use of more memory. Perhaps Win32 runs in virtual space within Win7 64, and I can allocate more memory? Anyway, the two packages I used are: http://www.oview.co.uk/dsread/ http://www.sas.com/apps/demosdownloads/sassysview_PROD_8.2_sysdep.jsp?packageID=000176 The second one requires a registration. Thanks for any help you can give me. Best, Thor
August 25th, 2010 12:50am

I have figured out that this is likely caused by the win32 2GB per process limitation, please let me know if you have any further insights or know a workaround. Thanks, Thor
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 25th, 2010 4:46am

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:50:39 +0000, ThorL wrote: > Thanks, the reason I asked this question is that I Sorry, I no longer have your question here and don't know what it was, so I can't help with it. But see below. > have one more GB of memory free when both programs fail. Both fail close to 3GB of used memory, and I was wondering if this was because of Win32 inability to address more than 3GB of RAM. That statement is close to right, but not literally correct, so I wanted to clarify the issue: All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP/7) have a 4GB address space (64-bit versions can use much more). That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go. But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM. That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around 3.1GB. Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual RAM itself. If you have a greater amount of RAM, the rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no address space to map it to. -- Ken Blake Ken Blake
August 25th, 2010 7:02pm

Hello, Isn't this 64 bit Windows, if so then there should be close to 4 gig available for 32-bit applications and you wouldn't have the hardware limitations? Is the requirement of the app to have contiguous memoryThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 25th, 2010 9:44pm

Hello, Isn't this 64 bit Windows, if so then there should be close to 4 gig available for 32-bit applications and you wouldn't have the hardware limitations? Hi, only if the application is compiled with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE compiler flag. André "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
August 26th, 2010 12:31am

Hi, an thanks for your suggestions. SAS is a great big hulk of a statistical analysis package. I need to convert files from SAS but don´t need it for anything else, so the basic stripped down single user license price of $8,700 seems a bit steep. The utility from SAS does not bomb out like the sdread.exe utility does. The SAS utility will state there is not enough memory. But it is running on a win7 64bit machine with 4GB of memory, with task manager showing that approx. 780MB are being used with the rest available, and I increased the size of the pagefile to 6-12GB. But nothing is enough, this silly piece of software insists on completely loading the file before doing anything else. I had hoped that there might be a workaround to make more memory available to sdread.exe, it is very clear that it stops at 2GB, no matter how much is available (i.e. it stops at 2.6GB total memory used when 600MB were being used when it started, or at 3GB if 1GB was being used when it started). So, is there a way to get the program to use more than 2GB of address space? Or should I contact the person who wrote this free utility? Thanks again for all of your suggestions, Thor
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 26th, 2010 12:54pm

So, is there a way to get the program to use more than 2GB of address space? Or should I contact the person who wrote this free utility? Contact the creator, they should compile it as 64 Bit or use the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag to allw the 32Bit application to use 4GB on a 64Bit Windows. best regards André"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
August 26th, 2010 3:12pm

Updating to a newer version always cost something. If we wants to use a modern Windows he must also use modern software. the 32Bit Adressspace is limited! This is a fundamental 32Bit issue."A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 26th, 2010 6:28pm

what has IO functions to do with 32Bit addressspace? he wanted to know what to enlarge the usable RAM for 32Bit applications ."A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/
August 26th, 2010 7:30pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics