I'm so frustrated...I still can't render large images (depending what the scene has in it). I have a 1year old HP computer with a Pentium III processor, but only 255 MB ram (it came with less than that...I just added more). Does it still need more ram or is there a way I can allocate more memory to Poser without screwing up the rest of my computer?

I do not know any way to give memory to a specific process. However is really you need memory you can increase the swap file. So the program may take all it want. Try during the rendering to use the program task manager (on NT or 2000) to see it the memory if really the problem. If you use other OS use program provide by the OS but I don't know there name. Guy Hope that may help.

Attached Link: http://www.crucial.com/

Rockets, programs like Poser need all the memory they can get if you're doing complex images. Do you know the maximum amount of memory your computer can handle? Do you know if it takes SDRAM simms? You could ask HP about that. My computer is about a year old (home built). I use SDRAM memory. The maximum on my motherboard is 512MB. Right now SDRAM memory is dirt cheap. The last time I bought 256MB of SDRAM, it cost under $20. I bought it from crucial.com, and they shipped it to me Next Day, for free shipping. You'd need to do a bit of research for your HP computer. Crucial does have a chart that helps you figure what kind of memory you need. Mine is "generic," which helps. Ron

with 255 Mb and a P3, Poser should fly, can you be more specific about what you are trying to do? There may be other ways around your problem, but we need to know what it is before anyone can help. regards peejay

Are you running XP?....Steve

Shut everything down except Poser Check your Virtual Memory is set up OK Purchase more Memory. I recently bought 1GB of ddrram for under US $200. in Australia and it is probably cheaper elseware.

Thanks for responding so quickly...I was afraid I would be asked tech. questions (now everyone will know how dumb I am) :-) I am running ME 255 Ram 933 MHz 38 GB I don't know how much Ram it can have, probably more than it does right now, but I'm not sure. The images I'm trying to do are not complicated and it seems to depend on how big the texture maps are, but not certain about that either. I never know when it will mess up so I save everything before I try to do a large render. When I say large, I'm not talking about huge...sometimes even 800 x 800 will screw it up. Sometimes just checking render in new window no matter what size will mess it up. This is really frustrating. :-(

My 2 Euro cents :-)) your problem ( in my opinion)is not your hardware , but your windows Me. Try to update to XP. Since i have xp no more blue screens , freezes or any thing.

Well I dont know mate Untill I get the new machine flashed up I am battling on with something around 120 mhz and 128MB ram.a bit slow but does not crash if I am running poser only. does crash if i am on the net using Internet Explorer. I would still have a look at your Virtual Memory Just type it in Widows help is the easiest way and when you get there make sure it is in the Windows manage auto mode

I know for fact it won't render if there isn't enough room on the drive. If rendering images over 2000x2000 you need at least 100mb open. However if you have 36gb of HD space this shouldn't be the problem.....if texture maps are large say 2000 pixels or large in MB size it can or will slow down machines. Other than that....delete one thing try and render....if it does it still put it back and delete another. Try a scene without all of your basics and see if it does it..basically troubleshoot for the problem...see if it is a prop or texture or a poser function. Isolate it...then work around it or fix it.

In Windows NT, 2k, ME, and XP, (not 98 though) there is one way to allocate more CPU time to Poser, which does help things out immensely. 1) Start Poser 2) Fire up Task Manager (CTRL + ALT + DEL, then select "Task Manager") 3) Click on the Processes tab 4) Look for "Poser.exe" in the list, and right-click on it... select the "Set Priority" menu item, and choose from the little submenu that pops up. 5) Select "Above Normal", and GO NO HIGHER THAN THAT! 6) Sit back and wonder in awe as your renders happen 33% faster :) WARNING ... at this point, be very careful. The trick is to bump it up a little - not too much. If you get dumb and crank it up to "realtime", I guarantee that you'll lock up your computer hard, since the CPU will ignore Windows itself at that level to pay attention to your process (Poser). Finally, know that you'll have to do this every time you fire up Poser, since unfortunately there's no way to make it a permanent thing in Windows. Also, while you're mucking about and feeling daring, you might want to see if there's other pesky little processes (Real Player, Winamp, etc) that you can throttle back, if not stop, to give Poser even more CPU attention... just be careful and don't stop what you don't recognize (and BTW - explorer.exe should be left alone, bit iexplore.exe can be killed if you want to shut off your web browser :) (I'm used to doing this sort of thing in Unix all the time... there it's called "niceing" or to "make nice" a process. It sort of carried over to Windows with me :)

I'm inclined to go with the theory that it's ME related, but I'm sure others are running ME with no problems. Maybe it's a combination of ME and HP or just HP. Has anyone ever changed their Virtual Memory settings under system performance? I'm afraid to try this since Windows gives all kinds of ominous warnings about changing it.

Oops must have cross-posted with you Penquinisto. Hmmm sounds interesting...I'm such a ditz when it comes to this type of thing no telling what I'd do my system. :-)

Well mine is set at 256 mb min and max. Then I used Norton speed disk to optimise the virtual memory (ie puts it in a perminant spot on the outside of the disk{FASTER} )

As for virtual memory - all it does is create a file named pagefile.sys on the hard drive... that's it. Go ahead and make it bigger - lots bigger (my laptop has 1GB of virtual memory set aside for it which works great for Poser - I originally set it that big because I play DVD's on the machine when I'm travelling :) /P

They're calling it pagefile.sys now? What was wrong with win386.swp?

I dunno... Unix usually sets aside virtual memory in it's own contiguous partition, with its own filesystem. MS has been calling it pagefile.sys since Windows NT; I think 95 and 98 still use win386.swp, though. The best trick with either one is to make and size the file right after you install the OS and defrag the drive, or to put the virtual memory on a seperate partition from the OS - makes OS performance more efficient that way, and helps a little to prevent the usual file fragmentation woes.

with win 98 I tried it with a fixed size of a swapfile but it was not better than before.Some say ,one should fix the size of the cache , not much better. Its a problem of win98 ( ME should be worse) and the handling of memory. Specially I had the problems with textures that used large bumpmaps.Using the same textures without loading the bumpmaps solved the problem. But i my opinion XP (or WIN2000) is the better os.

I agree - When I'm stuck with Windows (laptop), I prefer the Win2k install over 98/ME/etc... it's like NT without the constant Blue Screen Of Death :) /P

YOUR complaining, about a P3 with 255??? be glad your not me, i'm stuck with an AMD duron 800 and 128 megs of ram, heheh.... but poser still runs nice and quick for me, now bryce..... on the other hand....

LOL, I'm not complaining about the computer...just can't figure out the large render problem in Poser. I've tried most of the above suggestions...nothing worked. Guess the problem is the OS. :-(

I had the same issues when i had my windows ME. I found out that WINME is kinda quirky as far as memory allocation goes. I upgraded to WIN2K and havent had a prob since (cept that my graphics tablet doesnt work in 2K, arrgh.)

Rocket, if none of the above works, how about doing the render in something else? POV or Bryce or Blender spring to mind regards peejay

I run a P3 450 with 256meg of ram and windows 98. I neaver have a problem even with my one pz3 that is 143meg. I run maxmem and used StartEd to make sure things that I don't need don't get loaded on startup. I actually downgraded my dads PC from ME to win98 because his machine only came with 64meg of ram. Try to run ME on less than 512meg.

there isa way to do it with a DOS based windows, Windows 95, But after win 95 microsoft gave future version a ver limited dos that does not have memory operating features you can work with. something called memmaker in DOS allows win 95 user to allocate memory to programs and allws yu to run your computer in high memory.