How does one make sure that Poser is getting enough memory. I am running a gig processor, piii, with 365 megs of ram, using WinMe, can some one send me to a walk thru, or let me know how. I am a pretty good tech, jsut never added resource's thanks

you cant do that on a pc , only on a mac.Make shure to run poser without any other programs in background

Funny that you should mention that. The following is from a email that I shared with Anthony Hernandez about an unrelated issue on Poser 4 but that ties into Win Me: --- Dear Rob, At the risk of sounding sarcastic (which is NOT my intent), I believe the operating system itself is the problem. Somewhere, somehow, something in Windows itself got tweaked. At least that's my suspicion. Having used all flavors of Windows extensively, it is my professional opinion that Windows ME is not worth the CD it's printed on and that it's a significant downgrade from Windows 98 in terms of stability and usability. (me) You're not telling me anything new. I'm a Navy computer tech, so I'm more than aware of the inherent problems with Windows ME. To be honest, I figured somehow that the wonderful mess of codecrap known as ME might be the case, but I wanted to make sure I explored all possibilities. 1) Run Scandisk, Defrag, and an anti-virus utility. (me) Forgot to mention that I did all of that as well prior to the third installation. Didn't mess with QT or any of the other plugins; I may have to do that. B) Upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP. (me) Okay, if that "unofficially" solves the problem, that's a good thing, as I had planned to do this anyway. Win ME, frankly has been a pain and this isn't the first MetaCreations alumnus program that ME hasn't liked (getting Bryce to work on this system was a nightmare). --- He further went on to add that in Curious Labs' tests with XP, the program works FAR better and in fact renders in some cases up to three times faster than with Win ME. Hope that helps, -Rob

Forgot to mention: Mr. Hernandez is one of the programmers of Poser, as well as a member of the Tech Assist staff.

mitsukai: i agree to all the things aboveI dont blame poser and i think it is a windowsproblem Think i will upgrade to XP as soon as it available here

does she have the patch for poser?????????????????

Yes, I've patched it entirely to the current version. It's just that in most cases of problems with Poser, I'd likely believe it was Windows ME at fault than Poser.

xp renders at exactly the same speed as 2k, since theyre basically the same operating system (xp is just more glorified). believe me, i have tried timing a render on two identical systems, one running 2k and one xp, and the rendering time is appx the same. but i definitely would recommend switching to xp/2k from 9x. poser running on ME or 98 crashes a lot more frequently, runs slower, and a lot of things wont even render - such as extremely high res textures like stefyzz's or the daz high-res ones. it will just hang when you hit 'render' and you may even have to reboot your system. 9x has really crappy memory management, thats probably the reason. you should get 2k/xp anyways if youre serious into graphics or any work on your comp. much more stable, faster for apps, more secure, etc. and if one application crashes, your entire system doesnt hang because the applications are run in separate processes. cheers, gabriel

if youre running a lot of big tex files like the ones you can buy here,they will crash your system,try going into your paint program,i.e. jasc or what ever,then reducing the size of them,what exactly is happening?

Thanks guys, my thoughts also. Upgrading to Xp was on my list of things to do, so that will help poser also.

Just my 2 cents and two brain cells. The activation key issues don't matter to many but I've been told XP is trouble if you change hardwear frequently or have swapable drives. If your hardwear is going to change during the year I'd consider Win2000. At least with Win 2000 you won't have to wory about using up your activation keys. During the beta stage of things with XP I was told the final product will come with three activations. After that you'll have to call Microsoft for more. I hope this has changed since then but I haven't checked into it in a month or two. If it's still true then it's not much room to play with when/if you have a hardwear failure or just like to keep up with the latest and greatest hardwear up grades.

Blackhearted my computer (with ME) renders the daz high res textures quite nicely :) But I would like to upgrade to xp, but there are those annoying things, just like Neurocyber mentioned. Maybe Win2000 would be best.

I don't like the idea to blame MS for problems with Me. If Metacreations say that the program runs on Me it has to run there. Without crashing! Otherwise they have to say it doesn't run on this platform. I think they have to test the software more carefully - even if they don't like the platform.

I have ME. Poser runs fine for me. Bryce 4 runs fine. Bryce 5....Now....It runs, but, for some reason, the clock on my computer will not change times when I am using Bryce 5.

I have ME also (came with my new computer, which I'm on right now)...And before I started Bryce I had about %60 of my resources available...I ran Bryce, then closed it, and my resources stay at about %30... I've also had very many hardware problems... My conclusion - thank god Compaq gave me a free upgrade to XP :)

A new problem ........maybe someone can help here I just upgrade to XP from Win2k SP2. it runs fine, great features, poser running swell, but when I open my browser and trying to d/l a small file from any d/l site....... Gee.... "CRASHED" Blue Screen with the exact writing "Driver IQRL is not less or equal" (gee where did microsoft learn english?) I ask around and got back to Win2K....... PPL advice me that either WinXP Internet Explorer 6 which is a newest browser is still in beta progress, OR My proccessor (AMD Athlon 1 gigs, 512 RAM)is not going with WinXP Please do tell me if you know a solution for this dees

buy a used copy of 98se

I have a copy of win98se, and 95d :) XP sounds good as long as you don't plan to upgrade. But then if you do upgrade, I gather you can just reinstall xp and it will find the new items?

Hey I have a P2 350 AMD/K-6, 196MB, Win98SE, I run Poser 4 with Corel Photo-Paint at the same time. I dont see a problem with memory. Also I do my skin at 3000x3000 1000dpi.

OK, first thing first, if you have decided to delve into XP, get the professional version. There is only one activation key, and you don't have to register your software or re-register it when you upgrade your hardware. Also, I have heard of numerous cases where the Blue screen of death displays it's grim visage in XP home edition, when professional is as solid as a rock. There are numerous hardware and software issues with XP home which are just unheard of in XP professional. It's a tad more expensive, but most definitely worth it!

How much is the pro?

i think around $189 for the full, not the upgrade.

You can also purchase it right now, because the release date was sept 25 for re-salers, so if you go to a local computer shop, they can sell you a copy.

well, if there is no difference other than the existence of the activation code(which seems to clash with certain hardware causing the blue screen of death and shame, and requires an update when you decide to upgrade your hardware), then give me pro over home any day!

Well, lets just say, also, that less security in the pro version makes it easier to get by other means. And the full version of the home ed. goes for about the same. The upgrade versions for both are much cheaper.

scratch that last part. I actually am not sure how much the upgrade version of pro is, or the full version and upgrade of home are. I must admit that those are guesses. But hey, if that is your theory, might as well go with windos98 se, because next to XP, it is the most stable and reliable. This is a known fact, plus you can get it for pretty cheap these days, and who needs the extra features of XP?

Ok.... since I am also a Tech by trade, I'll comment on some issues... 1) I have found ME to be a pretty good upgrade from 98SE. 2) I >LOVE< WinXP. Been running it since the betas and it is a solid system. 3) Don't let the product activation scare you, it's not a big thing. 4) I have seen no verifiable cases of WinXPHome being less stable than WinXPPro 5) There is a serious, unfixed bug in Poser that causes this "out of memory" error - it is NOT the fault of the OS and manifests in multiple environments.

Some stuff in simplified terms: The general belief in the tech world is ME is the worst version of Windows since 3.0. Of all the 9x based Windows, 98SE is the most stable. The list prices for XP upgrades are $99 for Home; $199 for Pro. XP Pro is a direct decendant of NT Server. XP Home is a direct descendant of NT Workstation. XP Home does not support multiple processors; XP Pro does.

I've talked to many technicians, on a daily basis at my workplace. There is no such general believe that Windows ME is the worst version of Windows. As I've stated above, those who have problems with Windows ME, have overall computer problems that they most likely had before and will have again.

"I had about %60 of my resources available...I ran Bryce, then closed it, and my resources stay at about %30..." First, you really should have more resources available than that to begin with (assuming that's a fresh boot number) --60% is truly terrible. Run msconfig and put the brakes on some of the junk programs that are probably running in the background at start up, and be sure to clear out your start up folder of anything you don't absolutely use every single time you're on the PC. I run only what my PC needs to work, and have approx 90% resources available at every boot (with WinME). Second, if your are being left with only 30% after exiting Bryce, this would indicate a serious problem with Bryce returning its resources to the OS, not a problem with the OS itself.