Fix: “Out of memory or system resources” Error in Windows

The ‘out of memory’ error indicates that you cannot continue running the application. This issue mainly occurs when numerous applications are running in the background, consuming an excessive amount of memory resources.

Additionally, if you are using high graphics settings, make sure that your system can handle them. Otherwise, you will encounter this out-of-memory error.

If you are encountering this error, ensure that you meet the minimum requirements for the game or application. This is because if the application demands 16GB of RAM and you only have 8GB, you will encounter this error message. Furthermore, having corrupted system files and running the game with high graphics settings could also result in out-of-memory error messages.

After discussing the causes, let’s take a look at some of the best solutions that have actually been verified by the affected users on various different forums.

1. Restart Windows Explorer

Restarting the Windows Explorer is the same as restarting the PC. Restarting Windows Explorer restarts the background services and reloads the data from the Memory (RAM), which might fix the out of memory error. To do so, follow the steps:

1. Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager to open it.
   
2. Then, find the Windows Explorer, right-click on it, and click Restart.
   
3. Once the Windows Explorer has restarted, launch the application and see if the error persists.

2. Increase Virtual Memory

Virtual Memory is part of an SSD or Hard Disk that acts like a system memory if the application or game runs out of memory. It can be allocated from the disk, whether it is a hard disk, SSD, or NVMe. So if the application runs out of memory, increasing virtual memory can help fix this error. To do so, follow the steps:

1. Press the Win key and type Advanced System Settings.
   
2. Hit Enter to navigate into System Properties.
3. Click Settings under Performance.
   
4. Navigate to Advanced, and click Change under Virtual Memory.
   
5. Untick Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
6. Select the Custom size and enter the Initial size and Maximum size. We recommend entering the value of the initial size as 1.5 times your physical RAM, and the maximum size is 3 times your physical RAM. For instance, if you have 16GB of RAM installed, you can enter the initial size as (16 * 1.5) = 24GB and the maximum size as (16 * 2) = 32GB.
7. Once done, click Set, and click OK.
   
8. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
9. Then, launch the application and see if the out of memory is fixed or not.

3. Run sfc /scannow

The out of memory error also occurs due to corruption in the system files. Corrupted files can be repaired by running the SFC (System File Checker). It is a command line utility that scans the protected system files and restores the corrupted files from the cached folder located in the %WinDir%\System32\dllcache.

1. Press the Win key, and type Command Prompt.
2. Right-click the Command Prompt and select Run as administrator to open with administrator privileges.
   
3. Now enter the sfc /scannow and hit Enter key to execute the command.
   
4. Wait for the verification to be finished.
5. Then, close the command prompt, launch the game, and see if the error is fixed or not.

4. Close irrelevant background applications

If there are many applications running in the background without any reason, then you should close all the irrelevant applications because they consume an excessive amount of memory usage, causing your main application to run out of memory. Therefore, make sure to close all the idle applications to free up the RAM by using the following steps:

1. Open the Task Manager by using the combination of Ctrl + Shift + Esc simultaneously.
2. Here look for the irrelevant programs, and close all of them by right-clicking and selecting the End Task option.
   
3. Additionally, you can navigate to the Startup Apps from the left pane.
4. Here, you will see all the apps that run with Windows. Right-click the unnecessary applications one by one, and click Disable.
   
5. Once done, restart your computer, and launch the game to see if you are encountering the out-of-memory error or not.

5. Reduce the Graphics Settings

Reducing the graphics settings will reduce memory consumption, which means the application or game might not get run out of memory if you reduce the graphics settings. We also recommend reducing the video resolution. Once you have done that, run the game or application to see whether the error is fixed or not.

6. Update Graphics Driver

Sometimes outdated graphics driver also leads to the out-of-memory error message, which means you should have an updated graphics driver to experience smooth gameplay. So if you don’t update your graphics driver, make sure to do that by following the steps:

1. Go to your Graphics Manufacturer’s site.
2. Here search for the driver and download the latest driver.
   
3. Once done, run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver.
4. When installing the driver, make sure to tick Perform a clean install option.
   
5. Once done, launch the game or app to see if the error persists or not.

If you followed all the steps and none of the methods have worked for you. In this case, we recommend increasing physical memory according to the application requirement. You can also try reinstalling the application, as the error might be causing due to a problem with the application files. So make sure to reinstall the application before increasing the physical memory.