"insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment " message in eclipse

When I run my Java code in Eclipse, I get the following message:

There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue.
Native memory allocation (malloc) failed to allocate 4088 bytes for AllocateHeap
An error report file with more information is saved as:
E:\Eclipse_Workspace\BTest\hs_err_pid1888.log

I have 4GB RAM in my computer. I have changed my JRE from 1.7 to 1.8 too. But the issue seems un-resolved. I use a Win 8 system with i3 Processor and have around 20gb of free disk space in my C Drive.

Eclipse version: Eclipse Juno Service release 2

I also get this message while starting Eclipse. I have attached the error message screen shot.

What is causing this issue?

Memory parameters in "eclipse.ini" file:

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20120522-1813.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_64_1.1.200.v20120913-144807
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.java.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Dhelp.lucene.tokenizer=standard
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m

Resolution: Re-installing eclipse fixed the problem.

Solution 1:

The message above means that you're running so many programs on your PC that there is no memory left to run one more. This isn't a Java problem and no Java option is going to change this.

Use the Task Manager of Windows to see how much of your 4GB RAM is actually free. My guess is that somewhere, you have a program that eats all the memory. Find it and kill it.

EDIT You need to understand that there are two types of "out of memory" errors.

The first one is the OutOfMemoryException which you get when Java code is running and the Java heap is not large enough. This means Java code asks the Java runtime for memory. You can fix those with -Xmx...

The other error is when the Java runtime runs out of memory. This isn't related to the Java heap at all. This is an error when Java asks the OS for more memory and the OS says: "Sorry, I don't have any."

To fix the latter, close applications or reboot (to clean up memory fragmentation).

Solution 2:

How to diagnose this error even when running the simple command:

java -version
#
# There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue.
# Cannot create GC thread. Out of system resources.
# An error report file with more information is saved as:
# /home2/ericlesc/code/java/c2/hs_err_pid23944.log

Check the amount of free memory you have:

free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         28119      26643       1475        189       2391      15368
-/+ buffers/cache:       8884      19235
Swap:         5117         34       5083

Check the max number of user processes, make sure you are not over limit:

ulimit -a

ps -ef | wc -l

For me, the reason this happened was because PHP had consumed too much memory allocated to me on bluehost, and the way I was able to fix it, without restarting PHP or the server ( I can't ) was to take the public_html directory and rename it. And give it a minute for PHP to see the change, then rename it back.

A bug in the php engine itself. I found a clever way to give the PHP engine a swift kick.

(update Feb 2016) (I'm getting a spike of up-votes on this because Bluehost instance PHP engines are reserving all the memory and leaving none for the JVM. In their defense, PHP is evolving into an unholy rube Goldberg machine. Bluehost as a service is on the decline.