Not Enough Memory to Open [App] - But there's plenty!

[orvn]

Friend of mine is having an unusual issue with her new rMBP 15" running 10.8.2. Posting here because I can't determine the culprit (see image below).

Basically she constantly gets the old "not enough memory to open iMovie" (with various apps, but with iMovie more than anything) as well as the "iMovie does not have enough memory to complete that action, close and reopen iMovie" type error (again, with various apps, but mostly iMovie).

Odd thing is that she has nearly 5GB of free memory and zero page outs, even after using the machine for a while.

Odd, right? — Ideas?

 

[Bear]

Is this image from right after she got the out of memory message? Also, it might be useful to look at Activity Monitor when she gets the close and reopen iMovie message to see what is using up memory.

Also what size is the system disk and how much free space on it?

 

[orvn]

Is this image from right after she got the out of memory message? Also, it might be useful to look at Activity Monitor when she gets the close and reopen iMovie message to see what is using up memory.

Also what size is the system disk and how much free space on it?

System SSD has about 300GB free of 500.
She took this screenshot during the memory error, while iMovie was open.

Apparently it only happens when iMovie is open in the background, even though there is plenty of memory. I had her close everything other than iMovie and it still occurs.

Also she apparently uninstalled iLife, reinstalled it, still encounters the issue.

 

[Bear]

This is a tough one. Did the system come with 10.8.2 or was it upgraded to 10.8.2? If it was upgraded to 10.8.2, try applying the 10.8.2 Combo Update. The point patches have been known to have issues in the past that were corrected by applying the combo update. Also, if you do reinstall the combo update, run software update afterwards.