To use System 7, your Macintosh needs at least 2MB of memory (4MB is recommended). If you customarily work with several programs at a time, you may wish to install more memory.
Use the Available Memory
If you get a message asking if you'd like to open a program using the available memory, click OK, and the program will open. This message appears when the available memory is greater than the minimum memory required to open the program, but less than the recommended amount. In rare cases, you may be unable to use some features of the program.
Quit Some Open Programs
When you open an application and see the "not enough memory" message, you should quit one or more open programs. Open the Application menu (right end of the menu bar) to see which programs are open. This message appears when the available memory is less than the minimum required to open the program.
Change a Program's Memory Size
You can often avoid memory problems by reducing or sometimes increasing a program's current memory size. In rare cases, reducing a program's memory size degrades performance.
Sometimes the "not enough memory" error is telling you that your system may have enough RAM available, but the application's "preferred memory size" is set too low. Check About This Macintosh in the Apple menu for the largest free block size to ensure that you have enough free space; increase the Preferred Size (Step 4 in the following table) to a larger amount (you may need to experiment).
Follow these steps to change a program's memory size:
1. Quit the program.
2. In the Finder, select the program's icon.
3. Choose Get Info from the File menu. The program's Info window appears.
4. Reset the memory size in the Preferred Size field.
5. Close the Info window
6. Try again to open the program.
Turn Off Background Printing
When background printing is on, you can print while using the computer for other work. If you don't need background printing, you can reduce the amount of memory required to print by turning it off.
Follow these steps to turn off background printing:
1. Choose the Chooser from the Apple menu.
2. In the Chooser window, select a LaserWriter icon.
3. Click the Background Printing: Off button.
Quit Some Programs Before Printing
When you print, you'll sometimes see the Application menu begin to blink. When this happens, follow these steps to quit a program and make more memory available for printing:
1. Choose Finder from the Application menu. You'll see an alert box.
2. Click OK to close the alert box.
3. From the Application menu, choose the program you want to close. The program becomes active.
4. Choose Quit from the File menu.
5. After quitting one or more programs, try printing again.
Set the Disk Cache to the Smallest Size
The disk cache is a portion of the computer's memory set aside to limit how often the computer must read from a disk. This speeds up the computer's performance. By reducing the size of the disk cache, you can make more memory available for application programs. Follow these steps to adjust the disk cache:
1. Choose Control Panels from the Apple menu.
2. Open the Memory control panel (double-click the Memory icon).
3. In the Memory control panel, click the down arrow repeatedly until the disk cache is the smallest possible size.
4. Choose Restart from the Special menu to restart the Macintosh.
Drag Optional Extensions Out of the Appropriate Folders
Extensions (also known as INITs) compete with application programs for memory. (System extension icons are often displayed in the bottom-left portion of the screen when the computer starts up.) There are three types of extensions:
* Control Panels
* System Extensions
* Chooser Extensions
These extensions may be located in any of these folders:
* Control Panels folder
* System Folder
* Extensions folder
You can conserve memory by removing system extensions that you don't need. For instance, if your Macintosh is not connected to a host database, you can remove the DAL (Data Access Language) system extension. Likewise, if your Macintosh is not connected to a network, you can remove the AppleShare system extension. Follow these steps to remove system extensions:
1. Open the System Folder.
2. Open the appropriate folders
3. Drag the system extension icon out of the System Folder to another location on your hard disk.
4. Restart the computer.
Turn Off File Sharing
When file sharing is turned on, you can share information on your computer's hard disk with other users on a network. If you don't currently use file sharing, you can conserve memory by turning it off or removing it from the Extensions folder. Follow these steps to turn off file sharing:
1. Choose Control Panels from the Apple menu.
2. Open the Sharing Setup control panel (double-click the Sharing Setup icon).
3. Click Stop in the File Sharing section of the Sharing Setup control panel. A message appears asking how many minutes the computer should wait until file sharing is turned off.
4. Type a number and click OK.
Restart the Computer
If you have opened and closed a number of programs, your Macintosh memory can become fragmented so that you can't open a large program. When this happens, quit all the open programs, and restart the computer and then open the program.