Java 6 Update 25 VM crash: insufficient memory

Question

For an update of this question - see below.

I experience a (reproducible, at least for me) JVM crash (not an OutOf

Answer 1

I think that @ggb667 has nailed it with the reason your JVM is crashing. 32-bit Windows architectural constraints limit the available RAM for a Java application to 1.5GB¹ ... not 2GB as you surmised. Also, you have neglected to include the address space occupied by the code segment of the executable, shared libraries, the native heap, and "other things".

Basically, this is not a JVM bug. You are simply running against the limitations of your hardware and operating system.

There is a possible solution in the form of PAE (Physical Address Extension) support in some versions of Windows. According to the link, Windows XP with PAE makes available up to 4GB of usable address spaces to user processes. However, there are caveats about device driver support.

Another possible solution is to reduce the max heap size, and do other things to reduce the application's memory utilization; e.g. in Eclipse reduce the number of "open" projects in your workspace.

See also: Java maximum memory on Windows XP

^{1 - Different sources say different things about the actual limit, but it is significantly less than 2GB. To be frank, it doesn't matter what the actual limit is.}

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In an ideal world this question should no longer be of practical interest to anyone. In 2020:

• You shouldn't be running Windows XP. It has been end of life since April 2014
• You shouldn't be running Java 6. It has been end of life since April 2013
• If you are still running Java 6, you should be at the last public patch release: 1.6.0_45. (Or a later 1.6 non-public release if you have / had a support contract.)

Either way, you should not be running Eclipse on this system. Seriously, you can get a new 64-bit machine for a few hundred dollars with more memory, etc that will allow you to run an up-to-date operating system and an up-to-date Java release. You should use that to run Eclipse.

If you really need to do Java development on an old 32-bit machine with an old version of Java (because you can't afford a newer machine) you would be advised to use a simple text editor and the Java 6 JDK command line tools (and a 3rd-party Java build tool like Ant, Maven, Gradle).

Finally, if you are still trying to run / maintain Java software that is stuck on Java 6, you should really be trying to get out of that hole. Life is only going to get harder for you:

• If the Java 6 software was developed in-house or you have source code, port it.
• If you depend on proprietary software that is stuck on Java 6, look for a new vendor.
• If management says no, put it to them that they may need to "turn it off".

You / your organization should have dealt with this issue this SEVEN years ago.