out of memory error when I have plenty of memory available

Report · Jan 18, 2012

I'm working on a fairly large AIR desktop/kiosk app that consistently crashes, usually with an out of memory error first (that error message doesn't appear when I'm profiling). What's confusing about this is that I have plenty of RAM available (16GB total, only 50-60% in use) and the AIR app itself crashes between 1GB - 1.2GB of memory use. With projector files I can reliably use up to about 1.7GB but I needed AIR for this project. I have managed to work around the error by loading/unloading modules, but this is not ideal since the app freezes while modules are loaded/unloaded. It's not a deal breaker but we prefer to avoid any pauses if we can.

Aside from the fact that it seems to be prematurely running out of memory, another thing that is perplexing is the fact that the app uses more RAM while initializing than when it crashes, and during normal use the memory graph in the profiler remains almost completely flat and safely below the peak memory used during initialization. The only objects that are created/destroyed at this point are some events and a generic object used for storing metrics/user data that is saved/loaded as JSON. A typical session file is less than 2kb on disk and is destroyed when the user logs out, so I don't think this is creating a memory leak, and the flat memory graph confirms this. As the users interact with the kiosk you can see the memory use in the task manager increase, so obviously something is taking up more memory but it doesn't appear to be anything in my code.

The project uses Stage3d with Flare3d, but I did a build using no Stage3d and the error persists. I also tried using cpu mode instead of direct or gpu to rule out some issue with the video card but that also had no effect on the crashing.

So what causes an AIR app to run out of memory with so much free memory available, and how does an app run out of memory when its current memory use is less than the peak memory? If anyone from Adobe would like to view the final deliverable (~474MB) or take a look at the source files (~579MB) I'd be happy to share it.

The app is compiled using Flex SDK 4.5.1 with AIR SDK 3.1, using captive runtime on Windows 7 for final deliverable.

Report · Jan 18, 2012

Hi David,

Would it be possible to send me a crash dump? Your AIR app is 32bit, so I'm guessing you're hitting the max at 2gb (though I could be wrong on this number, it might be 3/4gb.) I'd also recommend opening a bug up over at bugbase.adobe.com. If possible, we'd like to test the app/project directly though at that size you won't be able to attach it to the bug report. Please feel free to send me drop box links and I'll make it available for us for internal use only (ccampbel@adobe.com).

Thanks,

Chris

Report · Jan 18, 2012

Hi Chris, here's the crash dump:

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: MerialBooth.exe

Application Version: 0.0.0.0

Application Timestamp: 4eb75f49

Fault Module Name: Adobe AIR.dll

Fault Module Version: 3.1.0.4880

Fault Module Timestamp: 4eb75fb9

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Offset: 000b7178

OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: 0a9e

Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Additional Information 3: 0a9e

Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

I'll open a bug report as well, and make some minor changes to allow you skip past some unskippable videos before putting it up on dropbox.

Report · Sep 01, 2012

Hi,

I also have a similar problem with our Flex application. Our AIR application is trying to play a few CCTV video feeds 8 or more(video feed resolution is 1280*720 at 15 fps). But the adobe AIR application, crashes when the memory limit reaches around 1.2 GB..

We are running this app on a 32-bit Win 7 OS..

Will upgrading the OS to windows 7 (64-bit) , help in this scenario. Also we noticed that in our application the memory increases only when we frequently switch between the camera streams. Noticed that the garbage collection of AIR is quite slow. Even though we clear the NetStream buffer, it takes quite a while to clear the buffer..

Appreciate any help on this

Report · Sep 05, 2012

@learner2010 - Could you please open a new bug report on this over at bugbase.adobe.com? If possible, please include a link to your application. If you'd like to keep this private, feel free to email it to me directly at ccampbel@adobe.com. Please post back with the bug URL so that others affected can add their comments and votes.

Thanks,

Chris

Report · Jun 18, 2015

Hi,

We have created AIR application which includes games. We have noticed that it crashes on Windows 7 & 8 machines after 24 hours and we think that this issue belongs to “memory violation” or Adobe Air. Please review the attached screenshot and provide me your guidance in order to fix this issue.

Regards,

Shankar