HOWTO: Troubleshooting Memory Errors Under OS 8

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b
• Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, version 2.6a

SUMMARY

WARNING: The information in this article has not been confirmed or tested by Microsoft. Some or all of the information in this article has been taken from unconfirmed customer reports. ANY USE BY YOU OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS ARTICLE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Microsoft provides this information "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

Both FoxPro and Visual FoxPro may produce memory related error messages when you run them on the new Macintosh OS 8 software. These errors may occur at any point in the usage of either the development version of FoxPro or within a compiled application. Since both Microsoft FoxPro 2.6a for the Macintosh and Visual FoxPro for the Macintosh 3.0b were designed to run on Apple OS 7.x systems, Microsoft cannot guarantee the either product will operate successfully on OS 8. However, some users have been able to run FoxPro and Visual FoxPro on OS 8 systems.

Listed below are some suggested troubleshooting steps to take if memory related errors appear while running under OS 8.

MORE INFORMATION

The following are a list of steps you may use in troubleshooting memory problems under OS 8. The suggestions provided below may not work in all situations. Often, the suggestions need to be cumulatively applied to the computer. Please note that these suggestions have helped some users. However, these steps do not correct all problems. If these steps do not provide the user with a stable system, you may have to run FoxPro or Visual FoxPro on a computer with a version of System 7.x.

Microsoft does not support, endorse, or recommend any of these products. We provide this information only as a convenience for our customers and do not provide warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

1. Reduce the number of colors the monitor uses to either thousands or 256. This frees up memory.

2. Turn off the virtual memory on the machine. If it already off, turn it on. Start with virtual memory set to 1 MB more than the amount of physical RAM. If this does not help, try increasing the amount of virtual memory. Conversely, if virtual memory is already set to a large value, try reducing the amount available.

3. If you are using a CoStar AddressWriter printer, remove the driver. We have received unconfirmed reports that version 2.1 of the AddressWriter printer driver causes conflicts.

4. Remove the FoxPro Settings file from the Preferences folder and restart FoxPro.

5. Remove the extensions Foxtools.cfm, on Visual FoxPro for the Macintosh, or Foxtools.mlb in FoxPro 2.6, and Foxdoc.mlb from the System's Extension folder. After removing these files, restart the machine and start FoxPro.

6. Try increasing or decreasing the amount of disk cache used on the computer. This setting is found in Control Panel under Memory.

7. If you are running a PPC application on a Power Macintosh machine and memory errors occur, try making a 68K version of the application. While this application may prove slower, it may help solve the memory conflict.

8. Rebuild the desktop and remove any desktop pictures or patterns.

9. Try turning off file sharing.

10. If FoxPro is running over a network, try running it locally and see if

        the network is causing the problem.
    

11. The default font used in FoxPro is Geneva. If this font becomes

        corrupted, errors may occur. To replace this font, remove it from the
        System's Font folder and copy the Geneva font file from the System
        disks to that location.
    

12. Remove the OpenDoc files from System Folder\Editors\OpenDoc folder

        and place these files in a temporary folder you create on your
        desktop. After you restart the computer, start FoxPro. If this does not
        solve the problem copy the files back from the temporary folder.
    

13. Instant Organizer from Claris has been reported to cause menu

        corruption with FoxPro. This may not be limited to OS 8 and may occur
        in system software versions prior to OS 8.
    

REFERENCES

Several other features of both FoxPro 2.6a and Visual FoxPro either behave differently or do not function at all under OS 8. For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q174915
   TITLE     : VFP 3.0 for the Macintosh Setup Wizard Fails under OS 8

   ARTICLE-ID: Q176729
   TITLE     : Menus Behave Differently In OS8

   ARTICLE-ID: Q153528
   TITLE     : SET PRINTER TO Enhancements in Visual FoxPro for Macintosh