PRJ2000: Low Virtual Memory Error or Microsoft Project Stops Responding When Grouping

When you group a project, Microsoft Project may stop responding, or you may receive an error message similar to the following:

This problem can occur when you use the Group by command to group a project, and you use one or more of the following task fields:

• Resource Group
• Resource Initials
• Resource Names
• Resource Phonetics
• Predecessors
• Successors
• Unique ID Predecessors
• Unique ID Successors

To resolve this problem, obtain Microsoft Project 2000, Service Release 1 (SR-1).

To obtain SR-1, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Temporary Workaround

When this error message occurs, you may be able to resolve the problem by increasing the size of virtual memory ("swap file") in Microsoft Windows. However, this workaround may not work in all situations.

The following steps describe how to change the size of virtual memory in Microsoft Windows 2000.

NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the System icon.
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab, and then click Performance Options.
4. Under Virtual memory, click Change.
5. Set the Maximum size setting to a larger number than the current setting.
   
   NOTE: You cannot set a maximum size that is greater than the amount of free space that is available on your hard disk.
6. Click OK three times.
7. You are prompted to restart your computer.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Project 2000, Service Release 1 (SR-1).