[iMacguy]

Every time I open Mac Help from the menu bar it opens just fine. However, when I type in a subject I get the same error message. "there is not enough memory. Shut down all applications and retry your request". The problem is that I'm not running any other apps. It does work though if I pick one of the topics listed and don't type one in. Is this normal? I've even allocated more memory to the Help Viewer but that did no good.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

I had the exact same problem with my iMac DVSE about 2 months ago. I posted the problem, but didn't get any comments back. I tried turning off all the extensions then turning them back on to identified the problem. It didn''t work. I ended up backing up my data file and did it restore. It is now working just fine. I am not sure why it happened. It worked fine when I first got the system. I am not certain whether there is another way of correcting the problem. Good luck.

[iMacguy]

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling I was going to have to go through that. Having never done it before can you tell me a bit about the process. I assume that I use my software restore CD, and I understand about backing up my data to a zip disk, but does that also mean that I am going to have to re-install ALL of my software (office,and others not included with the iMac)? Am I also going to have to re-configure the Apple menu again and all that kind of stuff?
Thanks again.

Did you try deleting the help prefernce?
Do a search for help and trash the items in the Apple Help Prefs. empty trash and then try help again.

Hi iMacGuy,

I tried trashing the help pref., but it didn't work for me. It might work for you. If that fails, try restore. What I did was I backed up my data onto my zip drives then did a restore from the cd. Restore created a "Original Items" folder to store the previous contents in the drive. Once restore was complete, I just drag and drop my already installed applications in the "Original Items" folder into the root directory. I have MS Office , Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and some other misc. appliactions that didn't come with the system. They all work so far. However, you do have to reconfig your menus and other custom settings.

Good luck and best wishes.

Mac Help Memory Fix

Occasionally people are having problems in OS 9 when searching using Mac Help. An out of memory error occurs & asks you to close other applications, even with a large amount of memory allocated for the Help Center application. Here are two ways to fix it:

1. Copy the Mac Help document from your Mac Help folder to your desktop. Then move the original Mac Help document (not the folder) to the trash. Restart your Mac. Then move the Mac Help document copy you made to the Mac Help folder in your System Folder. Retry the search again.

2. A better way would be to use the MacOS 9 System Software disk (not the System Restore disk) to uninstall "Mac Help" & the reinstall it with the same disk.

[iMacguy]

Jedi,
You rock!! I just uninstalled the mac help and then reinstalled it from the CD and it worked like a charm. However, somehow the "Palm serial port monitor" ended up in my start up items folder and kept me from being able to connect to the web. Once I figured that out and trashed it I was home free.
I am soooo glad that I didn't have to do a complete software reinstall. Thank you from the bottom of my hard drive.

Hi Jedi,

Thank you soooo much!! I had the same prob with machelp and I tried your first method, copy, delete and reboot...and it worked!! I didn't even have to try reinstall. What I'm wondering is why and how all this out of memory stuff happened to MacHelp??

Hi Jedi,

Thank you soooo much!! I had the same prob with machelp and I tried your first method, copy, delete and reboot...and it worked!! I didn't even have to try reinstall. What I'm wondering is why and how all this out of memory stuff happened to MacHelp??