"Not enough memory" addons crashes

[dirk101]

For some time now I've been getting random "Not enough memory" crashes, which I've found on the "Technical Support" forum to be because of addons. This started happening out of the blue, without making any changes to my addons, which had been working perfectly since I've had them. After deleting the WTF, Cache and Interface folders and reinstalling the addons from scratch, the crashes still happened.

I've since updated all of my addons to their latest versions, and it's still happening. The addons I'm using are:

Auctioneer Suite 5.5.4293 - Auctioneer, BeanCounter, Enchantrix, Informant, SlideBar, Stubby, Swatter
Elephant 2.5
Endeavours NotePad 2.5
EquipCompare 2.16
Gatherer 3.1.13
Mik's Scrolling Battle Text 5.4.61
Omen3 v3.0.7

My problem is that the crashes aren't consistent, meaning they occur somewhat randomly. Somewhat, because it mostly happens when a tooltip should come up on mouseover, or when pressing "Accept" or "Complete Quest" for a quest, and once it crashed after mounting my horse.

For anyone who has experienced "Not enough memory" crashes, how did you fix it?

Could the crash possibly be because of a conflict between the addons?

[lingering]

Auctioneer is a bit of a hog, you can set it to only load when you goto an auction house, this may help. There are other auction addons such as Auctionator which are less hog like that may help.

What OS are you using?
How much memory do you have?

Make sure you close any apps you dont need in windows (or your OS), you could try using Game Booster before you go into WoW to free up some ram and running, there is also stuff like Advanced SystemCare Free v3 that will tweak ur system but ofc be caurful with stuff like ASCF

[Syxx]

Or buy more ram.

[jadakren]

Originally Posted by dirk101 "Not enough memory"

Originally Posted by dirk101 After deleting the WTF, Cache and Interface folders and reinstalling the addons from scratch, the crashes still happened.

Originally Posted by dirk101 it's still happening. The addons I'm using are:

• Auctioneer, BeanCounter
  Continues to buildup a databse of information, needs to de-compress its information database on every mouseover.
  don't use it on anything other than a bank alt.
• Elephant 2.5
  continues to build up data from chat logs
• Endeavours NotePad 2.5
  continues to build up data as you create more notes.
• Gatherer 3.1.13
  continues to build up data as you gather resources.
  use gathermate instead, and only use it on a gathering toon.

Originally Posted by dirk101 it mostly happens when a tooltip should come up on mouseover,

see above note about auctioneer

Originally Posted by dirk101 and once it crashed after mounting my horse.

Originally Posted by dirk101 For anyone who has experienced "Not enough memory" crashes, how did you fix it?

Buy more ram, or be more frugal with your addon usage.

Originally Posted by dirk101 Could the crash possibly be because of a conflict between the addons?

No, it's your choice of addons and when you are using them.

[Petrah]

Have you ran the repair tool located in the root directory of the game? If yes, and it found no errors then another option, which is rather tedious but it's all part of troubleshooting, is to start from scratch again (delete the Cache, Interface, and WTF folders) and install one of your addons. Run the game for a day or so and see if it crashes. If it doesn't, install one more addon. Rinse and repeat until you figure out which addon is the culprit.

I've seen some of those out of memory errors on the tech support forum from an addon on systems with more than 4 GB of ram. At this point I think it would be better to troubleshoot the addons themselves rather than rushing out to buy more ram when you might not have to.

[dirk101]

I'm using Windows XP SP2, with 4GB of RAM. Would Auctioneer need more than 4GB?
A reply from a CM on the official forum said that:

"As suggested the crashes are linked to your use of add-ons, one of them is out-of-date or is trying to access memory it is not allowed to."

Are any of the addons I use know for "trying to access memory it is not allowed to" issues? Other than that, as I've mentioned, I've been using these addons since last year. Only once have I installed new ones, Omen and MSBT, a couple of weeks ago, long before the crashes started happening. That said, the databases have always been fully used and filled with information, never reseted them.

To jadakren, though Elephant keeps all logs stored, it only accesses the last 1000 lines of every type of chat, a limit which I've hit a good while ago. NotePad only has 2 pages of notes, which I doubt are a strain. For Gatherer, I have wowhead's database, so I'm not recording extra nodes, its database has always been constant. And about Auctioneer, though its database has been continuously growing for the past months, it has never once delayed a tooltip's access to the database, not even now.

To Silenia, I've already considered this option, but I lack the time needed to test every addon by itself. It would be a last resort though. I wish the crashes would at least be somewhat more frequent or consistent, to properly test this out. As it is, it would be tricky at best. I could try to at least find a series of actions that eventually lead to a crash to test out, like accessing the auctioneer frame continuously and see if it always crashes the game at some point. I forgot to mention that the crashes sometimes happen when right-clicking an auctioneer.

As a side note, I agree with your last point, though you'd have to be simple minded to buy ram just because it's been suggested. Besides, there are other options to try other than spending money to be able to use an addon.

That said, I appreciate your replies. If anyone else has suggestions to share, feel free to post.

[Torhal]

Originally Posted by dirk101 For Gatherer, I have wowhead's database, so I'm not recording extra nodes, it's database has always been constant.

It records things like: Last time you were at this node. Who you received the node from (even using WoWHead's database, you're still going to come across nodes they don't have from time to time) and other frivolous information that isn't absolutely required - this is why GatherMate was suggested. You get the nodes, and only the nodes, and from what I've read their method of storing the nodes themselves is far less memory-consuming.

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by dirk101 I'm using Windows XP SP2, with 4GB of RAM. Would Auctioneer need more than 4GB? A reply from a CM on the official forum said that: "As suggested the crashes are linked to your use of add-ons, one of them is out-of-date or is trying to access memory it is not allowed to." Are any of the addons I use know for "trying to access memory it is not allowed to" issues? Other than that, as I've mentioned, I've been using these addons since last year. Only once have I installed new ones, Omen and MSBT, a couple of weeks ago, long before the crashes started happening. That said, the databases have always been fully used and filled with information, never reseted them. To Silenia, I've already considered this option, but I lack the time needed to test every addon by itself. It would be a last resort though. I wish the crashes would at least be somewhat more frequent or consistent, to properly test this out. As it is, it would be tricky at best. I could try to at least find a series of actions that eventually lead to a crash to test out, like accessing the auctioneer frame continuously and see if it always crashes the game at some point. I forgot to mention that the crashes sometimes happen when right-clicking an auctioneer. As a side note, I agree with your last point, though you'd have to be simple minded to buy ram just because it's been suggested. Besides, there are other options to try other than spending money to be able to use an addon. That said, I appreciate your replies. If anyone else has suggestions to share, feel free to post.

You need to update to SP3. Reason being, if you were to take this to tech support they would tell you the same thing. They do not officially support systems that are not up to date with the latest SP's, patches, drivers, etcetera.

Without troubleshooting your addons one at a time via process of elimination, your last and only option is to replace your addons with other addons that do the same thing. Obviously one or more of your addons is causing issues for you, so you need to replace those addons if you want smoother game play. There's not really anything else you can do at this point.

I don't envy you... it's a pita what you're goin through.

Edit: Going back over your list of addons, I do highly recommend replacing Auctioneer. It's listed on tech support as being one of the trouble addons. Since I have personal experience with that one, I recommend AuctionMaster.

[Vyper]

Originally Posted by dirk101 I'm using Windows XP SP2, with 4GB of RAM. Would Auctioneer need more than 4GB? A reply from a CM on the official forum said that: "As suggested the crashes are linked to your use of add-ons, one of them is out-of-date or is trying to access memory it is not allowed to."

Addons cannot even attempt to access memory which they are not allowed to... thats not how Lua works.
I'd be more suspicious of WoW than your addons. Try running without any for awhile and see if you still get crashes.