Re: Type 2 crashes

From: John McGhie [MVP - Word] (john_at_mcghie.name)
Date: 02/24/04 

Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 18:15:09 +1100

Hi Will:

Word will hang with you up to around 5,500 pages in a single document,
depending on what is in the document. But it becomes quite voracious for
memory and CPU cycles when it is working that hard.

You may find that 250 pages in a single file is a practical upper limit, but
a lot depends on the speed and power of your hardware: I run over that
regularly: I tend to lose patience around a thousand pages.

However, Paul is correct: Word is a modern application: it expects Virtual
Memory to be there, and tends to crash a lot if it isn't.

On OS 9, you have to allocate the "running" memory for applications by hand.
If you do not allocate enough, Word will draw more from the system when it
needs it, if it can get it. If it can't get the memory it wants, Word will
ask for Virtual Memory. If there is no virtual memory, Word usually crashes
at that point.

For minimum documents (memos) allocate 15 MB. For normal corporate work,
try 48 MB. For serious documents try 96. For the stuff I do: 180 MB is
good :-)

Cheers

This responds to article <BC5D4A34.61E6%willmowat@ntlworld.com>, from "Will
Mowat" <willmowat@ntlworld.com> on 23/2/04 7:49 AM:

> Dear JE, Thank you so much for the explanation. I never have Virtual Memory
> enabled: am I right in thinking it's a throw-back to when RAM was expensive
> so people used the hard disk as a cheat? Surely there's no reason to use it
> now (my RAM is 384 MB)?
> In the end an Expert said Word's instability with heavy docs is known and
> advised me to chop my one into segments. What does anyone reckon? Thank you.
> Will.
>
> in article jemcgimpsey-DE0119.10222420022004@msnews.microsoft.com, JE
> McGimpsey at jemcgimpsey@mvps.org wrote on 20/2/04 17:22:
>>
>> the "minimum" setting is the amount that the OS should reserve to keep
>> the core bits of the application in memory. The "preferred" memory
>> setting asks for more memory to allow the app to work efficiently.
>>
>> When Virtual Memory is enabled and an app is opened, the OS gives the
>> app as much memory as possible, up to the "preferred" setting. The
>> available memory will depend (obviously) on the installed RAM and VM
>> settings, as well as any other applications running. If the desired RAM
>> is not available, the OS looks for apps that have allocations above
>> their minimum settings, and swaps out the balance to the hard disk
>> (swapping it back in when that app is activated). The OS can't swap the
>> minimum amount, though, so if that's set too high, it will prevent other
>> apps from using that memory, which is why you should leave "minimum"
>> settings alone.
>>
>> 40MB sounds like a lot, but when you've take both pictures and the fact
>> that the printer drivers have to be loaded into application space into
>> account, it may be cramping Word. If you have the memory available, set
>> the preferred setting to 48MB (the amount I used to use for everyday
>> use), 64MB or even 128MB.
>
>> In article <BC5ACFF9.3129%willmowat@ntlworld.com>,
>> Will Mowat <willmowat@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>>
>>> iBook OS 9.2.2 Word 2001. I'm having major problems preventing me from
>>> working. The doc is a large (10MB) text doc with all kinds of photos and
>>> things embedded in it. The problem is that Word is frequently quitting with
>>> the Type 2 error. Sometimes I can get Word to run with the doc if I try to
>>> start it several times, whereupon it continues a bit longer before quitting
>>> again. Restarting the iBook makes no difference, nor does clearing the PRAM.
>>> Thinking it might be lack of program memory I have increased Word's memory
>>> to 40,960 (!), but it makes no difference. One possible clue is that Word is
>>> not very happy if it has to reorganise its pages and footers as a result of
>>> text being inserted and moving everything down (red herring?). Anyway, (1)
>>> can some angel help out here? (2) can someone give me a brief explanation as
>>> what this application memory does and how we are supposed to know what to
>>> set it at? Thank you. Will.
> 

-- 
Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.
John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia.  GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@mcghie.name

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