There is no possible way that iGo is loading every single road, building and POI of every single map into RAM all at once (plus DEM files, etc). It would just not be possible unless you had much more than 128mb of RAM! Being that all of the "content" files can easily take over 4GB of storage space, I would think that you would also need about the same amount of RAM if iGo actually loaded everything into RAM at once.

That being said, I have no idea how much iGo actually does load into RAM at the same time... Must be some sort of algorithm used to determine exactly what needs loaded into RAM - and it probably loads and unloads things as needed.

That's why I never really "bought" that the more content you have loaded onto a storage card means that you need more RAM. The more content you have may cause loading times to be longer, as iGo does at least need to identify what maps you have, etc, but it's definitely not reading and loading all content into RAM at once. No possible way it could do that with the limited amount of RAM installed in these GPS units.

Obviously it doesn't load the whole file into memory at launch.

What iGO does is parse each file, where the file header is loaded and examined to check is valid what content it contains.

@katastrofe

Why bother?

As a "for example". If you have both the Nuance and the Loquendo TTS engines on the SD card, both TTS engines are not in RAM at the same time. I had originally thought that might be the case, but since I enabled logging, I've found that it's not the case. If you select a Nuance TTS voice and then change to a Loquendo TTS voice, iGO will "unload" the Nuance TTS driver and "load" the Loquendo TTS driver. If you go back to a Nuance TTS voice, it "unloads" the Loquendo TTS driver and "loads" the Nuance TTS driver back in. So it's not actually "wasting" any RAM by having both TTS drivers on the SD card.

From everything I've seen, iGo only keeps what it needs in RAM, regardless of how much content is on the SD card. If I'm driving in the USA and have a UK map on the SD card, iGo does NOT keep the UK map in RAM. :-)

So just because you have "extra" maps on the SD card, doesn't mean that iGo is going to use more RAM - at least not a substantial amount - it may keep info that a UK map is on the SD card in RAM, but not the map itself. It only keeps what it needs in RAM.

Like I said, otherwise, just loading tons of maps would cause out of RAM issues - but obviously it doesn't.

Now when planning a multi-state or even multi-country route, I don't know exactly how much map info it keeps in RAM. It may just keep map info for the planned route in RAM and then read other map data from the SD card if/when needed.

It would would make any sense that it tried to keep everything in RAM all of the time.

A simple answer for you then (a simple yes or no will do): do you know that the full Europe DEM's are over 200MB?
Whatever the answer, considering that size, you sure can explain if (and why) having a DEM or no DEM makes a difference or no difference when having reliefs enabled on a 32MB, a 64MB, a 128 MB, a ... device.

Sure, it makes a difference - but not a 200MB difference! :-) It just loads as much DEM info into RAM as needed. But it doesn't load the whole file into RAM (obviously). Just like iGo is not going to load UK maps when I'm in the US. So it certainly does not load EVERYTHING just because it's on the SD card.

That is my point, iGo only loads into RAM what it needs for the time being - not *everything* at once. As it needs more info, it will read it from SD card into RAM (and remove old info from RAM).

My US .dem file is about 300MB, so I'm familiar with large .dem files! :-)

So, now read again (my) post 15 on the previous page. Did you read it? Or overlooked it?
That post is more clear (I hope) but exactly the same as chas521 wrote/intended. Obviously, I did not make clear enough in the first line that files are not loaded completely, but ARE loaded.
And after reading my post, reflect things.

I was just trying to clarify what "everything" meant, that's all. When @chas521 said that "everything" is loaded, that makes it sound like *everything* is loaded into RAM, which it obviously isn't.

For example, having a .dem file for the UK on the SD card won't increase the RAM requirements one bit. A lot of people seem to think that the more content you have loaded, the more RAM is required - and that's just not the case. That's all that I'm trying to say.

Clarifying or pretending you are a dictionary? :D

Never the less, you are right, more: Chas and I are saying exactly the same as you.

Misunderstanding possibly is caused because we are in fact saying that every file is loaded for the area one is in (which chas did not say wordly but intended, I did say, Fatboyfun said also). Also the detail (file size) is important because the area still is loaded (as you agree) if the DEM is 300MB or just 3 MB - (let's say 1% of the DEM covers your area means 3MB or 0.03MB, now have less RAM).
Combined all the "area" files with the extra files (themes, resolution, etc) .... Be sure that data.zip, thus a.o. resolution files) is fully loaded! Limiting the reslution was the most important feature of the famous 2DIN build. Ever heard of it? That build really made IGO8 work on memory low devices that could not run normal IGO out of the box.
It's simply the overload on files that is causing issues. Skip some eye candy, (like 3D or DEM) for the area and surprise surprise, it works. Which needed to be proven, right?

Case closed?

Yep - sounds like we agree more than disagree on the subject! :-)

My main "gripe" is that some people will tell you not to load maps you don't "normally" need/use because it uses more memory - that is what I mainly disagree with. Personally, I load all US maps even though I really only normally use 1 or 2 states. Why? Well, why not? :-) If you have free SD card space, my opinion is why not load all of the maps? It may cause the startup time to be a little longer, but it does not require more RAM.

Personally, I load all 3D buildings and the largest .dem file I can find - just because I like the elevation details (with the TOPO scheme) while in 3D navigation mode. I haven't had any memory issues yet because of it, so I figure why not? Looks REALLY nice! :-)

Nowadays, I think most devices have plenty of RAM and plenty of power to run iGo with all of the bells and whistles. I'm sure there are some that still struggle, but I think they are the exception rather than the norm...

From @has521's original response, it didn't seem that he was saying what we're saying... His response just wasn't detailed enough and caused some confusion, I think. That's all.

Just a friendly conversation about the details! :-)

Back to the original topic, a small status update. I was not able to find the main reason. I removed the .DEM file, 3D buildings and I was happy... until the cameras disappeared again one day. I was surprised that if I relaunched iGo, the speed cameras were there like if nothing have happened.
I don't really know the exact reason, maybe I should give an other build a try...

Did you try to enable logging? The log file may (or may not) provide the info needed to determine the cause.

Strange... I enabled the logging but the file simply do not appear:

[debug]
log_1="\StorageCard\MobileNavigator\debug.log::5"

Anyway, speed cameras seem to be fine since then... :|

If "StorageCard" is the correct name that is used for your SD card, then it might not be working because you are missing a colon (:) in the entry. The entry should be:

[debug]
log_1="\StorageCard\MobileNavigator\debug.log::5"

Notice that there are 2 colons before the 5.