Virtual PC Memory Issue

Friday, March 25, 2005

I received the following error when loading a VPC image today:

"The virtual machine could not be started because there was not enough memory available on the host."

I only needed 512MB, and my host has 2GB! After some research, I came across a post blaming a running process named InCDsrv.exe. InCDsrv.exe is an Ahead Nero system service set to autorun when InCD is installed. This process is called the InCD helper file which provides assistance with the InCD file system.

After stopping the service, the VPC image loaded fine.

27 Comments

Oh you poor bastard. How did you ever cope?

Matt - Friday, March 25, 2005 5:25:00 PM

I didn't lose sleep over it.

Just wanted to share my solution in the event someone else has the same issue.

Michael Palermo - Saturday, March 26, 2005 5:57:00 AM

same problem strange thing was only showed up when 2 gigs of ram were installed no problems with 1 gig of ram (thought it was a MB board bios issues) any ways thanks for the solution

Parker Fjeldberg - Tuesday, March 29, 2005 2:55:00 AM

I just got exactly the same problem on my machine today after upgrading to 2Gb, and doing a 'net stop incdsrv' did the trick - thanks very much!

Royston Shufflebotham - Monday, April 4, 2005 9:38:00 AM

Thanks for sharing... it was driving me nuts. All that memory on no way to use it. Killed off said process and away we go.

Lex - Wednesday, April 13, 2005 1:43:00 AM

Hi I don't have this service and I have the same problem. Do you have any other idea ? I check for other similar service, but no luck.

Andre - Thursday, April 21, 2005 10:16:00 PM

Thanks for sharing this info, it helped me out also.

Eric Cosky - Saturday, October 28, 2006 10:02:54 PM

I had a similar problem when I upgraded from 1GB to 2GB as well, but I don't have InCDSrv running on this machine. I had two MSDE (SQL Server) instances running, and when I stopped them, then Virtual PC loaded up the virtual machine just fine. I was able to restart the MSDE instances after VPC was already running.

So this problem is not isolated to the InCDSrv service, other services can produce the same result on a machine with 2GB of RAM. I think this is a bug in Virtual PC.

Blue Lizard - Friday, November 10, 2006 3:27:26 AM

Blue Lizard is correct. Stopping SQL server services will also fix the problem. Thanks for posting Michael.

Steve - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 5:13:49 PM

I too agree.Blue Lizard is correct. Stopping SQL server services will also fix the problem. Thanks for sharing guys.

VJ - Saturday, February 17, 2007 1:40:20 PM

Wow - thanks man. Not sure how you figured that out but it saved me a ton of frustration (imagine having all that RAM and not being able to use it)!

JB - Monday, April 2, 2007 7:59:36 PM

I have 2 GB without Nero or SQL. it's work after i stoped the Norton Client Anti virus!!!
Good Luck

Meir Michaeli - Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:52:30 AM

Superp boss , I am not having a words to say for any thing else instead of Thanks...................Great

Naidu - Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:13:05 PM

Had a similar problem, but with Roxios RecordNow CD burning software. Had to uninstall the dlactrlw.exe (the drag&drop CD support) and then everything worked just fine.

This blog got me in the right direction! Many thanks! :)

Hagstrom - Monday, December 3, 2007 2:54:32 PM

Windows Update solved it in my case -- I wasn't running any unusual services.

David - Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:58:27 AM

Thanks man... Really helped

Randeep - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:08:43 PM

i am having the same problem "The virtual machine could not be started because there was not enough memory available on the host" i have 1GB ram and i didnt installed InCD.

jabir - Tuesday, April 22, 2008 5:40:17 AM

I have 4G of Ram, I have stopped any and all of the above services, and still get the same error message. What next???

Ben - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 7:41:28 PM

If nothing is working out try this :
Go to settings through VPC Console and reduce the allocated RAM and re try.

MS - Thursday, August 21, 2008 5:47:32 PM

Thanks for this. I lowered the amount of allocated RAM and it worked! :)

Suz - Monday, September 15, 2008 12:02:16 AM

You guys are all n00bs

Mr.Higby - Friday, March 6, 2009 8:12:03 PM

Excellent tips. I lowered the RAM - and that sorted me out. This seriously saved me some frustration.

Geoff - Thursday, March 26, 2009 8:14:02 AM

Nice posts here gang. Thanks to Blue Lizard especially...My issue was also with the SQL instances. I have multiple instances of SQL 2000 and 2005 on my machine. Was getting the same message...stopped the SQL Services, and boom, I'm in w/o the message, and can start the SQL instances up again after it's running.

Dave - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:05:35 PM

reducing the RAM through the console did work

cheers for this

saleem - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 8:01:21 PM

well i have the same problem but theres no incd and it still does it!i can only run windows chicago and not my nt 4.0 and xp!

person - Sunday, August 16, 2009 1:56:35 PM

Hye, Thank you for all of your post (Palermo4, and all commentor)..

ashiena - Friday, September 11, 2009 4:32:20 AM

If you didn't found inCD service (if no installation of Nero) try to stop IP Helper service...this help me..

Andrew - Wednesday, December 29, 2010 11:55:11 AM

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