This is actually not an Eclipse-specific issue; it's a general
Java-on-Windows issue. It's because of how the JVM allocates memory on
Windows; it insists on allocating a contiguous chunk of memory, which
often Windows can't provide, even if there are enough separate chunks to
satisfy the allocation request.
There are utilities that will try to help Windows "defrag" its memory,
which would, in theory, help this situation; but I've not really tried
them in earnest so can't speak to their effectiveness.
One thing that I've heard sometimes that might help is to reboot Windows
and, before starting any other apps, launch the Java app that needs the
big chunk of memory. If you're lucky, Windows won't have fragmented its
memory space yet and Java will get the contiguous block that is asks for.
Somewhere out on the interwebs there are more technical explanations and
analyses of this issue, but I don't have any references handy.
Make sure that Eclipse is actually running the same JVM you think it's running. If you use java in your web browser ever, you likely have a 32-bit version floating around too that might be taking precedence if it installed or updated lately.
To be absolutely sure, I recommend adding these two lines to your eclipse.ini file at the top:
-vm
C:/Java/jdk1.6.0_27/bin
...where on my machine C:/Java/jdk1.6.0_27/bin where the JVM I know is 64-bit is located. Be sure to have the bin folder there.
(As a bonus, on Windows 7, this also allows you to actually "pin the tab" which is why I had to do this for my own usage)
First the JRE of 32bits can't use more ~1.5Gb of ram. So if you want more, use a 64bits JRE.
Second, When a new JVM starts, this sum the -Xmx property of the all JVM that are running, and check if there is enough memory left on the system to run at their own -Xmx, if is not enough then the error occurs.
I was using Liferay with Tomcat server from eclipse IDE.
I was stuck with this same error on click on server start up.
Double click on server from eclipse.
it open up Server Overview page. Updated memory arguments from -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m to -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m.
Then it was working for me.
I also had the same problem while using Eclipse which was 32 bit and the JVM used by it was 64 bit.
When I routed the Eclipse to 32 bit JVM then it worked
Probably you are trying wrong options anyways.
I got a similar error with supporting error log:
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM warning: ignoring option PermSize=32M; support was removed in 8.0
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM warning: ignoring option MaxPermSize=128M; support was removed in 8.0
Im my case, the software did not support java 8 yet(script was using old JVM arguments) but I had had java 8 by default.
One of the reason for this issue is no memory available for Tomcat to start. Try to delete the unwanted running software from windows and restart the eclipse and tomcat.