Why can't I boot an AVD from Eclipse with 1024 MB of RAM?

Question

So, like a lot of people starting Android development with Eclipse, even with a fast machine, I notice that the emulator runs frustratingly slow.

I search SO for any ti

Answer 1

I have the same problem occasionally, and I'm unable to tell you exactly why this problem occurs, but it seems that the AVD won't start if it has been allocated more then an X percentage of your available RAM at the time of starting.

If you lower the given amount by just 50mb, you'll often notice it will run just fine. Or, similarly, if you close a few programs to save some RAM, it will also boot up perfectly fine.

I know it's not ideal, but I suggest to just lower the allocated RAM in small amounts until it boots up. I wish I could give a better answer but I haven't been able to find a reason myself either.

Answer 2

Weird, but this worked for me on Windows 7 x64 machine with 16GB of RAM. You do have to add MB at the end of "hw.ramSize" in config.ini. I had the same problem like OP wrote. Also, if you need 2 gigabytes of RAM, write 2048MB and simulator will run from Eclipse.

Answer 3

From Galaxy s3 emulator:

There is a common problem when setting up the AVD that you have to manually edit the config file to fix. File is located at C:\Documents and Settings\username\.android\avd\name_of_avd.avd\config.ini

Change the memory settings from

hw.ramSize=1024

to

hw.ramSize=1024MB

(Do not enable word wrap in notepad).

Save the file and reopen the avd. This worked for me.

Answer 4

Try starting the AVD without Eclipse to remove that Factor. This can be done by navigating to your SDK-Path/tools and open Android(.bat?) and then select the AVD manager.

I would recommend opening a command shell, navigating to the path and then run

emulator -avd AVDNAME -scale 0.7 -no-boot-anim 

You can also try starting it without the scale parameter or maybe even a lower number.

Answer 5

On Windows, emulating RAM greater than 768 may fail depending on the system load

Answer 6

1. Open C:\Users\your user.android\avd\yourAVD.avd\config.ini

2. change

   hw.ramSize=1024

to

hw.ramSize=1024M

this worked for me :-) hope it will help!