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Force Quit Applications warning on iMac 24

I am getting this warning repeatedly. I have a 640GB hard drive with 560GB of free space. I'm running the latest version of Snow Leopard and the only open programs are Safari, Firefox and Finder. I've ran the diagnostic on the hard drive both using the disk utility and the one located on the DVD that came with the computer and all has come up ok.


The actual warning states:


"Your Mac OS X startup disc has no more space available for application memory.


To avoid problems with your computer, quit any applications you are not using. Closing windows and removing files from your startup disk will also help.


Firefox

Safari

Finder"

MacBook Pro 17, Mac OS X (10.7), iMac 24 iPhone 4 iPad 2

Posted on Dec 5, 2011 9:52 AM

Reply
7 replies

Dec 5, 2011 11:44 AM in response to KennyA

KennyA wrote:

"Your Mac OS X startup disc has no more space available for application memory.

Hard disk space has nothing to do with application memory, that's a function of installed random access memory (RAM). Launch the Activity Monitor in /Applications/Utilities/, select all processes, select System Memory tab, and ascertain what's taking up the installed memory.

Dec 5, 2011 12:08 PM in response to baltwo

Thanks for offering to help!


I had thought the problem was due to lack of memory in RAM, but having done a few internet searches of the problem and everyone was pointing to the hard drive as being full. Having only two browsers open was puzzling me that it would cause a RAM issue. Of course, having so much free space on my HD was also puzzling...


I'm limiting the number of open windows to the ones I listed in my post. Firefox at the moment is using the most of the 4GB of RAM I have at roughly 110MB, Safari at 61MB. Quick Look Helper is at 67MB. These are the three largest by far. Total memory used 1.43GB. I'm currently not getting the warning. I will keep the Activity Monitor running in and will post again as soon as the warning comes up again.

Dec 6, 2011 6:43 AM in response to baltwo

I finally got the iMac to act up and I think I've pinpointed the memory hog. It is Safari Web Content. The Safari window while on Yahoo Mail went to the spinning beach ball. Two other Safari windows were open, one on the Yahoo web page the other on Amazon, they had the beach ball as well.


As I watched the Activity Monitor on All Processes in Memory, the Safari Web Content continually and steadily climbed until all free memory was consumed.


I'm running the latest version of Snow Leopard on my iMac 24. Lion is on my MacBook Pro...


Thanks for any suggestions as to how to fix this!

Force Quit Applications warning on iMac 24

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