Error occurred during initialization of VM Could not reserve enough space for object heap Could not create the Java virtual machine

Question

I am facing this problem since more than a month, here is what I see when I run java on command line:

$ java -Xmx1300m 
Error occurred during initialization of VM Could not reserve enough space for object heap Could not create the Java virtual machine.

If I run with less memory it works fine

$ java -Xmx1240m Usage: java [-options] class [args...] (to execute a class) or java [-options] -jar jarfile [args...] (to execute a jar file) ..... .....

I spent a week trying to debug this and nothing worked. Finally I had my IT support guys replace the laptop. This happened a month ago on 10/23. Now, after a month, the same problem is back on my new system.

My system configuration is:

Win 7 Enterprise (64-bit), Service Pack 1. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2640M CPU @ 2.80GHz 8.00 GB RAM

Java: java version "1.5.0_20" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_20-b02) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_20-b02, mixed mode)

We are a team of about 30 guys here and I am the only one facing this. All others have almost the same config and working fine for them.

An important observation is Java works fine for some time and then this problem appears once it appears it doesn't go away, even if I re-install java.

I faced this issue the 3rd time after the IT support guys re-imaged by laptop. It worked for a month and now the same problem is back.

Everybody is completely clueless. I have started using 2 laptops now. :-)

Answer 1

Thanks.I changed heap space from 2000MB to 1024MB and it worked...

Answer 2

Anyway, here is how to fix it:

Go to Start->Control Panel->System->Advanced(tab)->Environment Variables->System Variables->New:

Variable name: _JAVA_OPTIONS

Variable value: -Xmx512M

taken from this link