Hi Nickel7,
Thanks for an interesting question. I've researched the error you've
received, and from what you've provided, I believe I have a solution
for you.
First, you mention that you have other CDs in the set that work
correctly, so this rules out any hardware problems with your computer.
(That is to say, there's nothing wrong with your CD ROM drive or with
Windows being able to access it.)
Second, because trading the CD with another produced the same results,
we can assume that there's nothing wrong with the CD itself. (It's
unlikely that both CD's are damaged.) Moreover, since the computer
complains about a particular file, we can assume that the computer is
at least reading files from the CD. (You can verify this fairly
easily by right-clicking on the CD's icon in the My Computer window,
and selecting 'explore'.)
So, what kind of file is this, and why would it case such a problem?
The clue is in the file extension, in this case ".a5r". I did a
quick search for ".a5r file extension"
(://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=.a5r+file+extension
) and the results point towards Macromedia's product, Authorware.
This strongly suggests that the content of the CD was produced with
Authorware version 5 - a cross-platform programming tool that can make
multimedia programs for Windows or Macintosh. (On the Windows
platform, Authorware 5 runtime files are named with an ".a5r"
extension.)
This points to a problem in launching the Authorware file. It's
possible that this is a problem with the Authorware viewer software
that came with the product. (A newer version of Authorware exists).
It also it doesn't hurt to check on the manufacturer's website to see
if there was a known problem with the product, and if they released an
update to fix such a problem. Frequently book publishers, (in
particular those publishing technology books), will have a website
with errata and software patches to fix problems spotted after a
product goes into production.
I searched Macromedia's technical support website for Authorware,
(http://www.macromedia.com/support/authorware/ ) and found a mention
of the error message you're seeing, but for the Macintosh version of
the product. (See, http://www.macromedia.com/support/authorware/ts/documents/mem_mac.htm
which describes a similar problem on the Macintosh. Their suggested
solution is to reduce the colors of the display; you could try this in
the Windows control panels, in the settings tab of the display control
panel. I suspect, however, that color-depth is not the cause of the
problem you are experiencing.)
Macromedia does mention a PC memory problem (a limitation really) in
its technical support notes for Authorware version 5 and 6:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/authorware/ts/documents/aw_gig.htm
The problem relates to running Authorware on a PC system that has over
2GB of memory. (This problem was apparently fixed in version 6.5.)
Usenet posts, indexed through Google Groups, also mention this
problem, with the phrase "computer memory is full". (One good thread
of posts titled "Getting Memory Error - NEED HELP!" can be read using
the following url:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=uo1d10hn02th01%40corp.supernews.com&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3Dpaging%2Bfile%2Bsize%2Bauthorware%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
)
Paging, in this case, refers to moving files between harddisk and RAM,
as needed. The limit for earlier versions of Authorware is 2 GB. If
physical RAM (actual memory) and virtual memory (swap space on the
disk drive) exceed the 2 GB limit, then Authorware will refuse to open
the file. While you don't mention how much physical RAM is in your
computer, I'm guessing that it's probably less than 2GB.
So the issue here is to reduce / control the amount of virtual memory
in use. Normally Windows does this automatically, but you're going to
want to override these settings. To do so, simply go Start > Settings
> Control Panel > System. In the System Control Panel, move to the
Performance Tab, Click the Virtual Memory Button, choose "Let me
specify my own virtual memory settings" and then specify a maximum
amount that when totaled with your physical ram is less than 2048 MB.
Note that putting in a really low number (or disabling virtual memory
altogether) will result in much slower Windows performance.
Alternatively, if the virtual memory is very low (or available drive
space is low), then you might be getting the "memory is full" message
because memory REALLY is full.
The 2GB limit is usually mentioned by developers when creating
Authorware files, not when running them, but it's conceivable that the
viewer program for the Authorware runtime file suffers the same
problem. If the above doesn't solve the problem, I'd suggest
upgrading your Authorware viewer to the newest version (6.5). The
viewer is free and can be downloaded directly from Authorware's
website:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/authorware/download/
So... to sum up, the problem is with running the Authorware file, not
a problem with the computer hardware or CD. To troubleshoot this
you'll want to try:
* Changing the color depth of your screen
* Changing the virtual memory settings in Windows
* Updating your Authorware viewer software
* Checking the website of the CD producer / publisher for an update
If none of these suggestions solve your problem, please don't hesitate
to post a request for answer clarification prior to rating this
answer.
Thanks,
Duncan2-ga
Search Strategy:
I first searched on Google for the term ".a5r". After identifying the
file as an Authorware file, I used the search on Macromedia's support
website. Finally, I searched through Usenet postings using Google
Groups. |
,
0 Comments
)