Illustrator RAM: Please Help!

I am really frustrated here. I am having a problem with my Adobe illustrator cs2. The problem is, that every time the program renders something or finishes (let's say, rounded corners) the loading bar is complete but does not leave the screen, and clicking "stop" does not do anything. This causes the program to get stuck. I think this is a problem with the RAM because when I try to change something or get a preview of a change I get an error saying:

"The operation cannot complete because there isn't enough memory (RAM) available"
I have tried restarting and changing the AI preferances file, but nothing seems to fix the problem. If anyone knows how to fix this problem I would very much appreciate if you told me!

Could you add some specs of your computer? (RAM, CPU, GPU).

Also, have you patched up Illustrator and your video drivers to the latest? Might work aswell...

sounds like you need yo buy more ram. cs2 & 3 are resource hogs.

Im not sure how to check the amount of my RAM, and I don't think I can just buy more, i'm working on a laptop

You can buy more RAM for your laptop, i've added an extra 1.5gb in mine. Have a look at ebuyer, but the best thing to do is switch your laptop off completely, open the back, take your existing ram stick out, write down the name/details of it etc, then search on ebuyer or other places to find the same model but larger obviously. Also it depends on how many slots you have (they're next to eachother), you may get 1-3gb in older notebooks.

There are websites which can scan your computer, Tell you you're ram type. How much you have. How many slots you have and how much Ram you can take.

Originally Posted by Conscept There are websites which can scan your computer, Tell you you're ram type. How much you have. How many slots you have and how much Ram you can take.

conscept you know of any?

if your on XP/Vista

Start > Run > type "dxdiag" (without the quotes) and press Run.

It will show you your memory there (As well as other system info).

if you just look at the properties of my computer it'll tell you how much ram you currently have. if you're doing anything decent in adobe programs i wouldn't settle for less than 2GB.

Geez, a lot of misleading advice here. I run 512mb RAM and Illustrator CS2 and Photoshop CS2 run fine together at the same time. I only have a 1.8mhz P4 for my work rig and it runs sweet.

The problem sounds like you need more virtual ram, in XP you can right click on my computer, select properties, advanced tab, performance settings, advanced tab and select change virtual memory. Then alter the size of your virtual memory to suit your requirements. I run with 768mb on each of my 4 hard drives. Which equals 3082mb of virtual RAM and 512mb of ddr2 RAM, total of 3594mb of RAM.