[Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

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Nuno Bouça
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:22 am

[Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by Nuno Bouça »

Good Morning,

while trying to save the document gives me this error (Fatal Error - bad allocation) and forces to close the document without being able to save anything! I lose all the work!

Anyone know what it is ??

Thank you for your help!!
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Last edited by Hagar Delest on Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged [Issue] (link to a bug report).
OpenOffice 4.1.2
Windows 10
Nuno Bouça
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:22 am

Re: Fatal Error - bad allocation

Post by Nuno Bouça »

Thanks!

I've been read topics but didn't find the solution or suggestion to solve the problem!
OpenOffice 4.1.2
Windows 10
Herb40
Posts: 134
Joined: Thu May 08, 2014 3:35 am

Re: Fatal Error - bad allocation

Post by Herb40 »

Nuno Bouça wrote: I've been read topics but didn't find the solution or suggestion to solve the problem!
Unfortunately, there is no solution to the problem that can be provided by anyone on this forum. The bad allocation problem is caused by an error deep within the Open Office Calc software, and can be eliminated only after one of the developers of this software is assigned to work on the problem.

As someone who has also been affected by this problem, I have found that changing the way I use Calc may help to eliminate the problem. Periodically save your work, completely exit from Calc, and start over again. To me, the problem seems to be caused when something "big" (such as a complicated sheet) is deleted. I have found that if I have, say, 25 sheets and want to delete all but 1 of them, I may have to delete only 5, then save, exit, start over, and delete another 5, ... until I have only the 1 I need. (There is nothing "magic" about 5 sheets at a time. You may be able to delete a different number each time.) As the document becomes smaller and smaller, the likelihood that the bad allocation problem will occur diminishes.

Of course, deleting large sheets may not be causing your problem. Just remember that as Calc runs, it continually creates and then deletes various data structures, and somewhere in the process loses track of which memory is in use and which is available for use. Saving your work and starting over again lets you begin with no allocation problems.
OpenOffice 4.1.3 on Windows 10
Nuno Bouça
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:22 am

Re: Fatal Error - bad allocation

Post by Nuno Bouça »

Thank you very much!

Incidentally, that's exactly what I began to do ... Save often and do everything slowly ...

Good work !!
OpenOffice 4.1.2
Windows 10
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Hagar Delest
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Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: France

Re: Fatal Error - bad allocation

Post by Hagar Delest »

It seems there is a bug report already for that, you can vote for it (up to 2 votes per report): Issue 125006 - Calc Consistently crashing, usually with "Fatal Error - Bad Allocation".
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
Jazomir
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 12:01 pm

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by Jazomir »

Recently 'jumped ship' from MS Office Pro 2003 when the Windows 10 April 2018 update caused severe problems with Excel 2003. When I downloaded ApacheOpenOffice 4.15 and started using Calc I started having the same problems noted here while I was converting/updating all my existing .XLS spreadsheets to .ODS format. The suggested work around for the issue (saving after every 4 or 5 changes) appears to be only half successful as not all the changes are recovered during the recovery process. I can only assume that the cause of the fault has not been identified and resolved in the intervening 2 or more releases. Anyone have any more suggestions as I can't continue working with this issue as most of my day is spent using these spreadsheets.
ApacheOpenOffice 4.1.5 on Windows10
Jazomir
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 26, 2018 12:01 pm

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by Jazomir »

Quick update. After the Fatal Error problems started, I decided not to use CALC and have another try at getting Excel 2003 to work. I repeated all my previous steps but missed out/uninstalled a notorious Security update and Excel started working again. I shall now stick with Excel until the Fatal Error problem is resolved.
ApacheOpenOffice 4.1.5 on Windows10
Juggoire
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2021 5:19 pm

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by Juggoire »

How is this still an issue in June of 2021??? Have they ceased support for this project?
Open Office 4.1.10
Windows 10
Matareuz
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:33 pm
Location: Venezuela

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by Matareuz »

As Villeroy said, Open Office is dead,
OpenOffice is almost dead by now. Its successor can be downloaded for free from https://libreoffice.org.
LibreOffice 6.3.2.2 Windows 7 Ultimate
goodTrades
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:45 am

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by goodTrades »

I have had BAD ALLOCATION issues for years with Open Office Calc and deal with it as follows. My database file is about 10meg bytes and has about 2000*60 very long and complicated equations to update that are dependent on each other. One equation change and the whole thing will update.
  1. whenever i make a code change (cell equation change) i need to wait for all equations to update before i press SAVE. I watch the bottom of the window for green flashes and after they finish (about 30 seconds), i am free to press SAVE without getting the BAD ALLOCATION otherwise I will get it and lose all changes.
  2. after i save ONCE using step 1, i must close the file and use the windows 11 Task Manager to clear out all open office processes that don't close. Until i clear out those Open Office processes, i cannot open any Windows 11 files using the file explorer. Only one Open Office Calc SAVE at a time can be done. Attempting a second save will give the BAD ALLOCATION fault and the file locks up. After i SAVE once, i close the file and clear out the processes using the Task Manager and then can reopen the file to make changes and SAVE again.
  3. after a month of file modifications and SAVES i get to a point where BAD ALLOCATION will appear consistently and inhibits saving. Then i have to clear PC cache. I am not sure where the Appache save the cache files so i clear all cache. I have saved a website to walk me through the steps that takes about 5 minutes. Then i can save per step 1 again for another month.
This workaround adds to the workload but i have developed a large and complex program that can't be ported to excel easily so i just deal with it.
Last edited by MrProgrammer on Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added formatting tags for numbered list -- MrProgrammer, forum moderator
openoffice 4.1.14 windows 11
BedeFlyer
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2023 3:08 pm

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by BedeFlyer »

Hi All,
I have been living with this fatal error for many years but I am narrowing down what mostly makes it crash. I have a large spreadsheet and generally make a small alteration and save before doing important editing which saves me losing input data and time. This usually helps. If I just change an ettribute i.e just the colour of a text.... it always? crashes. whilst if I put a word on another line and save it mostly doesn't crash. Then I mostly can carry on and keep saving without crashing. Just FYI..... Not sure if anyone is though interested in fixing this.......

Peter G
OpenOffice 4.1.14 on Windows 7
goodTrades
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:45 am

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by goodTrades »

Hello BedeFlyer
Yes I use my database daily and got to notice the subtle behavior just like you mentioned. So i use it in a very specific way to avoid stepping out of bounds. I have also found that a file can actually be damaged beyond recovery. Not matter what i do to repair the environment the file will always give Bad Allocation. I recover from this OK because i do the daily data copy to an external drive. I have developed firmware/software during my career and would venture a guess that solving this problem would require (how should i say this) a lot of work. It appears that there are multiple problems that may include how data memory is handled and the interface with Microsoft Windows. I can understand why no one wants to open this can of worms but the solving this would bring some bragging rights. At least they would have us to test the software versions.
Regards
openoffice 4.1.14 windows 11
Rotnbair
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 10:01 pm

Re: [Issue] Fatal Error - Bad allocation

Post by Rotnbair »

#MeToo. My "bad allocations" don't usually occur when saving a Calc sheet. Mostly it's when a lot of processing is going on. My latest example is a BASIC for-next loop that runs 33 times. It gets to the end fine, then "bad allocation" every time, and no results saved. If I split it into 2 loops, executed 17 & then 16 times, it usually works fine, but occasionally still blows up.

As an experiment, I clicked "Save" in the middle of running the for-next loop. The interruption does not affect processing, allows saving at least some of the results, and also seems to prevent "bad allocations".
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.14
Windows 11
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