"Out of memory" error message question

[CraigG]

Hello All!

I'm now experiencing an out of memory error message while imaging which leads of course to an SC shutdown. Does this message, which I couldn't save for future reference to read, mean that my RAM capacity is not sufficient to continue or does it relate to drive size limits? I have a Lenovo laptop with an i7, 16GB RAM and a 250GB SSI drive. I am down to only 16GB on the drive but I regularly clear my disk of temp files, etc. so it's probably as capable as it's going to get with what I need loaded on it.

Before I look at upgrades to solve the error message issue I wanted to hopefully get a better understanding about what's triggering it.

Thanks so much!
Craig

[admin]

Hi Craig,

to some extent, the answer depends on what you are trying to do at the time that the error happens. However, here are some general pointers for you

* Use the 64 bit version of SharpCap, not the 32 bit version
* If you have a SharpCap Pro license, set the two memory sliders in the settings to about 4Gb each (for a 16Gb system)
* If you have a very high resolution camera (20 megapixel plus), the amounts of memory needed for some stacking/stack refinement/processing calculations can be very large. 2x2 binning will reduce the memory requirements by a factor of 4, so may be helpful if your pixel size means you are oversampling anyway.

cheers,

Robin

[CraigG]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for sharing the possible causes. I've previously adjusted the memory sliders but I'll have to check what there set to now when I get home. Maybe going to 4Gb each will do the trick. I've also moved up to ASI 2600 so that might be the culprit!

I haven't imaged in so long due to our normal winter sky conditions I'm surprised I remember how to set anything up!

Best wishes,
Craig

[admin]

Hi Craig,

the big thing for high resolution cameras like the 2600 is having the 64 bit version - while SharpCap manages the memory used for captured frames and most processing tasks in detail, there are places where the system takes over memory management (like displaying things), and with high resolutions and the 32 bit version you can eventually get into a situation where there might be enough *total* free memory available, but none of the blocks are big enough to match the requirement.

cheers,

Robin