"failed to create empty document"

I've been plagues lately with my machine seeming to have a limit on the 
number of documents or programs that can be opened.  If I exceed that 
quota, I either get the MFC "failed to create an empty document" (in 
Aldec when I try to open another source file), or the application just 
plain not opening with no warnings (Xilinx, for example).  The limit 
seems to decrease as I work, to the point where I can only have one 
application open, then I have to reboot the machine.

I checked my disk array for space...there is about 160 GB of 490 GB 
total occupied, so disk space shouldn't be the issue.  I looked at the 
temp folder, and that doesn't seem to be full either.

This is windoze XP pro.

Anybody seen this and have a cure?

Does it always happen (not dependent on running applications) or only when 
you have certain applications running, like Aldec or Xilinx ISE?  I'll 
forward your note onto to some XP people that I know and see what I get 
back.  If I get back anything worth while I'll post it.

Not that I'm an XP expert, but this kind of smells like a memory (mother 
board RAM) issue.   Open up the Task Manager and take a look at available 
system memory when you start to experience this problem, just for grins.



"Ray Andraka" <ray@andraka.com> wrote in message 
news:Qhkwf.41617$Mi5.28702@dukeread07...
> I've been plagues lately with my machine seeming to have a limit on the 
> number of documents or programs that can be opened.  If I exceed that 
> quota, I either get the MFC "failed to create an empty document" (in Aldec 
> when I try to open another source file), or the application just plain not 
> opening with no warnings (Xilinx, for example).  The limit seems to 
> decrease as I work, to the point where I can only have one application 
> open, then I have to reboot the machine.
>
> I checked my disk array for space...there is about 160 GB of 490 GB total 
> occupied, so disk space shouldn't be the issue.  I looked at the temp 
> folder, and that doesn't seem to be full either.
>
> This is windoze XP pro.
>
> Anybody seen this and have a cure? 

Rob wrote:
> Does it always happen (not dependent on running applications) or only when 
> you have certain applications running, like Aldec or Xilinx ISE?  I'll 
> forward your note onto to some XP people that I know and see what I get 
> back.  If I get back anything worth while I'll post it.
> 
> Not that I'm an XP expert, but this kind of smells like a memory (mother 
> board RAM) issue.   Open up the Task Manager and take a look at available 
> system memory when you start to experience this problem, just for grins.
> 

Rob, thanks!

Hard to tell, If I am at the computer it is because I am doing design 
work, which means one or more of those apps is open.  It doesn't seem to 
be tied to any one of those apps though.  I've seem MSword do it too 
with a long document (50 page book chapter with about 50 drawings).  It 
is as though there is a memory leak, but it isn't showing up on the task 
manager.

I haven't seen the RAM usage go over about 1.5GB (2GB RAM in the 
system), and I have the paging file set to 3072MB min, 8192MB max.  I've 
never seen that file increase above the 3GB minimum.

On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 04:20:31 GMT, "Rob" <robnstef@frontiernet.net>
wrote:

>Does it always happen (not dependent on running applications) or only when 
>you have certain applications running, like Aldec or Xilinx ISE?  I'll 
>forward your note onto to some XP people that I know and see what I get 
>back.  If I get back anything worth while I'll post it.
>
>Not that I'm an XP expert, but this kind of smells like a memory (mother 
>board RAM) issue.   Open up the Task Manager and take a look at available 
>system memory when you start to experience this problem, just for grins.
>
>

Actually I don't think this is a hardware issue (especially because a
reset cures it). I think some app is leaking system resources
(memory/windows/gdi handles etc) which is normally not supposed to
happen with XP. One thing which is not clear with Ray's post is
whether this continues to happen even if he closes all open apps. One
thing to try is to open task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and see if there
are any zombie processes which belong to dead applications. These may
be keeping windows/other resources in memory. Close all apps which are
not used, all processes which are not needed anymore and see if you
can recover without a reboot. Also going to
windowsupdate.microsoft.com to get the latest patches might help.

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 23:26:47 -0500, Ray Andraka <ray@andraka.com> wrote:

>Rob wrote:
>> Does it always happen (not dependent on running applications) or only when 
>> you have certain applications running, like Aldec or Xilinx ISE?  I'll 
>> forward your note onto to some XP people that I know and see what I get 
>> back.  If I get back anything worth while I'll post it.
>> 
>> Not that I'm an XP expert, but this kind of smells like a memory (mother 
>> board RAM) issue.   Open up the Task Manager and take a look at available 
>> system memory when you start to experience this problem, just for grins.
>> 
>
>Rob, thanks!
>
>Hard to tell, If I am at the computer it is because I am doing design 
>work, which means one or more of those apps is open.  It doesn't seem to 
>be tied to any one of those apps though.  I've seem MSword do it too 
>with a long document (50 page book chapter with about 50 drawings).  It 
>is as though there is a memory leak, but it isn't showing up on the task 
>manager.

Closing apps one by one, watching Task Manager, might yield a culprit
(sudden release of a GB or so). But this sounds more like W98 than XP.
One of the apps isn't from that era by any chance?

Stating the obvious, but maybe worth checking for malware. 
My own work machine doesn't even have a modem! :-) 
And when I later took a W2000 machine online, I was very glad of that...

- Brian

Brian Drummond wrote:

> 
> Closing apps one by one, watching Task Manager, might yield a culprit
> (sudden release of a GB or so). But this sounds more like W98 than XP.
> One of the apps isn't from that era by any chance?
> 
> Stating the obvious, but maybe worth checking for malware. 
> My own work machine doesn't even have a modem! :-) 
> And when I later took a W2000 machine online, I was very glad of that...
> 
> - Brian

The task manager isn't showing any unexpected large memory users, and 
doesn't indicate that I am running out of memory.  The apps are all 
latest versions.

I am also using zonealarm and Grisoft antivirus, and run spybot 
search&destroy.  None of those are discovering any malware, doesn't mean 
there isn't any, just means they are not detecting any.

My work machine doesn't have a modem either :-) , but it does have a 
network connection to a cable modem through 2 layers of hardware firewalls

Ray Andraka wrote:

>The task manager isn't showing any unexpected large memory users, and 
>doesn't indicate that I am running out of memory.  The apps are all 
>latest versions.

Defragmented your disks recently?

You might want to use one of your two free support calls:

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&x=7&y=4&c1=509&gprid=3223&


-- 
Phil Hays

Ray Andraka wrote:

> Hard to tell, If I am at the computer it is because I am doing design 
> work, which means one or more of those apps is open.  It doesn't seem to 
> be tied to any one of those apps though.  I've seem MSword do it too 
> with a long document (50 page book chapter with about 50 drawings).  It 
> is as though there is a memory leak, but it isn't showing up on the task 
> manager.

I expect than one of the windows system
files has been corrupted. I would try
an online update or a setup/repair from
the windows CD.

At work, I use one machine for sim and docs
and a second machine for synth/p+r, both
using the same file server for sources.

           -- Mike Treseler

Mike Treseler wrote:

> Ray Andraka wrote:
> 
>> Hard to tell, If I am at the computer it is because I am doing design 
>> work, which means one or more of those apps is open.  It doesn't seem 
>> to be tied to any one of those apps though.  I've seem MSword do it 
>> too with a long document (50 page book chapter with about 50 
>> drawings).  It is as though there is a memory leak, but it isn't 
>> showing up on the task manager.
> 
> 
> I expect than one of the windows system
> files has been corrupted. I would try
> an online update or a setup/repair from
> the windows CD.
> 
> At work, I use one machine for sim and docs
> and a second machine for synth/p+r, both
> using the same file server for sources.
> 
>           -- Mike Treseler

Do the on-line updates repair/replace all of the windows files?  I keep 
the system updated with the windoze updates, and none of the updates 
have fixed it.  I've been reluctant to do the windows repair from the CD 
because my experience in the past with NT meant doing that and then 
going back and redoing all the updates, service packs etc, plus the 
occasional reinstall of applications.  I suppose doing the repair from 
the CD is the next step, I'm jsut dreading it because it probably also 
means a day lost getting things back to where they are now.

My main machine is an Athon 64x2 hypersonic cyclone ocx.  Moving to this 
I more or less abandoned the two machine set up I had previously, 
although I still have the second machine here untouched but not powered 
up unless I need it.  The previous set-up was a dual P3-800 for the 
docuementation, design entry, sim, internet access etc and a dual 
K7-1800 for par and synthesis.  My hearing was getting affected by the 
vacuum cleaner like sound emanating from those two machines, and the 
excess heat in the room was rather impressive.  Part of the reason I 
retired the dual P3-800 was to get back onto a single machine to reduce 
the noise and heat load, as well as to avoid the network bottleneck 
between machines.  Simulation as well as the synth and par do run 
noticibly faster on the cyclone, provided I can open everything I need 
opened.  It is also quite a bit cooler, and with the liquid cooling is 
virtually silent compared with the vacuum cleaner.

Ray Andraka wrote:
> Do the on-line updates repair/replace all of the windows files?

No, just some.

> I keep the system updated with the windoze updates, and none of the updates 
> have fixed it.

OK that's not it.

> I've been reluctant to do the windows repair from the CD 
> because my experience in the past with NT meant doing that and then 
> going back and redoing all the updates, service packs etc, plus the 
> occasional reinstall of applications.  I suppose doing the repair from 
> the CD is the next step, I'm jsut dreading it because it probably also 
> means a day lost getting things back to where they are now.

A day if you're lucky.
Sometimes it's more efficient to
go to Fry's and pick up another
box preloaded with the latest XP.

> My main machine is an Athon 64x2 hypersonic cyclone ocx.

Is the the XP 64 bit version much of an advantage
for your applications?

> Moving to this 
> I more or less abandoned the two machine set up I had previously, 
> although I still have the second machine here untouched but not powered 
> up unless I need it.  The previous set-up was a dual P3-800 for the 
> docuementation, design entry, sim, internet access etc and a dual 
> K7-1800 for par and synthesis.  My hearing was getting affected by the 
> vacuum cleaner like sound emanating from those two machines, and the 
> excess heat in the room was rather impressive.

I hear you on the noise.
I am now using a dell optiplex gx520.
It has a fan, but that is inaudible from 2 feet away.

> Part of the reason I 
> retired the dual P3-800 was to get back onto a single machine to reduce 
> the noise and heat load, as well as to avoid the network bottleneck 
> between machines.  

Hmm. It seems that a 100M ethernet network
ought to keep up a hard drive. What caused
the bottleneck?

> Simulation as well as the synth and par do run 
> noticibly faster on the cyclone, provided I can open everything I need 
> opened.  It is also quite a bit cooler, and with the liquid cooling is 
> virtually silent compared with the vacuum cleaner.

A single application machine is my goal as well.
Right now, I have one machine running
emacs, modelsim, quartus and open office on Suse Linux
and a separate windows machine for Leo
and Fluke Networks winXP applications.

The key for me is to use an external file
server for 100% of all data files, and to
keep nothing but OS and applications
on my local machine.

Good luck.

         -- Mike Treseler