Maxsea problem

[jonesc]

Hi All,



I have read the comments regarding MaxSea out of memory problems on versions 9 and prior, the problems lies with the Microsoft jet-database, that’s right it’s the database that MaxSea uses during configuration, these versions wont handle ram configuration above 1 Gb. The only way around this is to reduce the amount of physical ram in the machine or adjust the amount of virtual memory. Try setting the virtual memory to 512 Mb this will work.


How do I know this, I was the importer and technical support person for Maxsea software in Australia prior to Furuno marine taking over the company

[jonesc]

Originally Posted by irma

Hello everyone
Need help with Maxsea (v.11) GPS (Fururno 32) connection. When I connect the GPS to my laptop (have Windows vista) Maxsea does not shows the position, but I can see that the GPS send data. Anybody can help me with that?

Change MaxSea input output settings from GLL or GGA to RMC. that will work

[Amgine]

Jonesc: Welcome aboard, and thanks for jumping in and lending a hand!

[reflectionsv37]

I have experimented quite a bit with the Maxsea out of memory issue. I have run a number of tests on various computers, all running Windows XP, and it appears any computer that has a 1gb memory chip will not run the Maxsea program. You can put 2 or more, I've tried 3, 512kb chips and the program runs fine. Unfortunately, I've not found a solution to this.

I was recently talking with one of my cruiser friends who is now in Indonesia and he told me that cruisers were getting around this problem by partitioning their hard drives and installing Linux on the second partition. Apparently, this is not an issue on the Linux operating system.

[hellosailor]

"it appears any computer that has a 1gb memory chip will not run the Maxsea program. "
That doesn't make any sense. Programs running under Windows can't 'see' the size, type, or number of the memory chips, all they "know" is how much memory Windows makes available to them. And Windows itself deals with all the issues of addressing the memory.
I don't say it is impossible--just that it is extremely improbable that that is a real issue. More likely there is something else not being seen.

[reflectionsv37]

I agree! It doesn't make any sense, but it works! I've tried it with laptops and desktops. I purposely purchased a laptop with 512kb base memory and added an extra 512kb and it works fine.

I had a desktop and put 2-512kb chips in it worked fine, Took those out and put in a 1gb chip and it failed with the low on memory error. I've tried this on at least 6 different computers of various makes, all running windows XP, and the results have been the same. Give it a try! Now if I could just find a motherboard that had about 8 memory slots!

I just tried jonesc's suggestion on the virtual memory on my desktop with 4gb of memory and it didn't work. Set the min and max to 512 and rebooted. I'd sure like to find a way around this problem. I'm not a Linux person, but I may try installing it on another hard drive and see if it works.

[hellosailor]

I don't have Maxsea to play around with, so can't try it on this end. Did you put the one same 1GB memory stick in all six of those computers?

"and it failed with the low on memory error." With an exact error code, you could try asking around in some XP/NT forums as well.

Since Linux is a different OS, it won't be running the same version of Maxsea that Windows does, and even if you run something like WINE trying to emulate it--the playing field still isn't level.

[s/v Jedi]

So, how come you're still on MaxSea version 9 or older? When that version was around, there were no PC's with 1 GByte of memory ;-)

cheers,
Nick.

[bitman]

i have 2 1gb memory sticks in a hp laptop and have no problem at all. i even run this on windows 7 beta version without any problems. i also have tried with only 1 1gb memory stick and had no problems... maxsea version 10.1.3.2 i

i also have tested with 2 512mb memory sticks same result, no problems. on win xp & win 7 beta

[s/v Jedi]

Bitman: I run MaxSea versions 10, 11 and 12 on anything and it all works fine but never tried it on Vista. I hear that there are Vista problems with MaxSea so I would really like to hear details from you like if you needed to tweak settings for compatibility etc.

cheers,
Nick.

[bitman]

@nick, i didn't tweak any thing. just installed the windows 7 beta on my laptop and installed maxsea 10.1.3.2 on it...

i never used (and will never do) or tried vista... so sorry not a lot of help for you.

[chicagodrifter]

I run version 12.5 with a dongle and C-map vector charts. Some screen updating problem that can be dealt with by panning the chart. I run it on a Vaio with 2 GB of Ram. I had it on a Lenovo with the same problem. Best to run it on XP.

[Sam Plan B]

I have MaxSea on an external hard drive and the program runs very well. I bought it preloaded from an ebay contact. My problem is a bit different. The software wants to look for a GPS plugged into a serial 9 pin port. My laptop has USB ports. Does anyone have know how to reconfigure the program?

Sam s/v Plan B

[chicagodrifter]

A USB to serial adapter cable will do the trick if you have the correct driver (not all of them work). I ran 2 GPSes and one is a direct USB Sirf (hockey puck Taiwanese $50) and uses their proprietory driver for NMEA 0183 and for the other one is a RadioShack USB2Serial connected to a NavMan. I do use COM 3 in MaxSea. I use them one at a time. Make sure you restart MaxSea after the GPS is up and connected. They both work in Vista and XP on version 12.5. To configure the GPS is a menu under Display?? (the default settings are usually OK). I'm not by my navigation computer to tell you exactly.

[pendragon]

If you get into the nitty gritty of Maxsea, you will find that the amount of RAM is not what the program is accessing. The architecture of Maxsea was built for the WIN 95 era, where SWAPFILE or PAGING FILE (memory on HARD DRIVE) usage was used instead of RAM. As ram was very expensive in the 'old' days.
If your laptop has 1, 2, or more GB RAM, it does not matter. To run Maxsea in every version, you need to just set the Paging (Swap) file to zero, as it really is of not much use anymore with so much RAM available.