System Error. Code: 8. Not enough storage is available to process this command

Actually this is a problem with ATOM table. I reported this issue to Embarcadero (saved in Wayback Machine) as it is causing me a lot of grieves.

If you monitor global atom table you will see that Delphi apps are leaking atoms, leaving the id of your app without dropping it off from memory:

You will see loads of following items:

**Delphi000003B4*

*Controlofs0040000000009C0**

Basically, since you can't register more than 0xFFFF different windows messages ID as soon as you ask for another one, the system will return "System Error. Code: 8. Not enough storage is available to process this command". Then you will not be able to start any app that creates a window.

Another issue (saved in Wayback Machine) was reported in Embarcadero QC Central.

This issue presents itself under Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008. The fact that on Windows Server 2003 and before it used to run is because of a wrong implementation, which recycles ATOMs once their index wrapped around the maximum of 16384 units.

Feel free to use my Global Atom Monitor to check whether your Delphi apps are leaking atoms or not.

To fix this you'll need a patch from Embarcadero, or download ControlsAtomFix1.7z from www.idefixpack.de/blog/downloads.

If your program uses a lot of windows resources it could be a Resource Heap shortage.

There is a registry entry that can be increased to raise the heap size for XP. For Vista Microsoft already sets the default value higher. I recommend changing the default 3072 to at least 8192.

This information is documented in the MS Knowledge Base (or search for "Out of Memory"). Additional details concerning the parameter values may be found in article KB184802.

I suggest you read the knowledgebase article but the basic info on the change is:

1. Run Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE).

2. From the HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:

   \System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystem
   

3. On the right hand side of the screen double-click on the key:

   windows 
   

4. On the pop-up window you will see a very long field selected. Move the cursor near the beginning of the string looking for this (values may vary):

   SharedSection=1024,3072,512
   

5. SharedSection specifies the System and desktop heaps using the following format: SharedSection=xxxx,yyyy,zzz where xxxx defines the maximum size of the system-wide heap (in kilobytes), yyyy defines the size of the per desktop heap, and zzz defines the size of the desktop heap for a "non-interactive" window station.

6. Change ONLY the yyyy value to 8192 (or larger) and press OK.

7. Exit the Registry Editor and reboot the PC for the change to take effect.

Good luck.