2016a Java error on startup

I run Matlab 2016a on Windows 7. It has worked fine for months, but recently started giving me this error message on startup:

Exception in thread "Explorer NavigationContext request queue" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded
  at java.lang.String.toLowerCase(Unknown Source)

(I have just shown the first 2 lines.) There is also a 'Processing...' icon, which is taking forever to finish, and I also have no idea what it is processing. I have never had this problem before. Please help!

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

So what changed with your MATLAB installation, your operating system, etc. between the last time it worked and the first time it didn't?

Did you install, uninstall, or update any applications?

Did you add or remove any hardware?

Are you running a lot more applications now than you were previously? [For example, do you have a lot of tabs open in your web browser? Since the message indicates this is an out of memory error, I want to determine if you're using a lot more memory than before.]

Does the problem persist even after you restart your computer?

[Isabel Chen]

Thanks Steven. I just installed Git (v2.8.4) on my machine - do you think this caused the problem? I restarted my computer, and the 'Processing...' and associated whirring of machine persisted for awhile, maybe 30 minutes or so, but then stopped on its own accord. Everything looks back to normal now, and hopefully it stays this way. I would still like to try and understand what happened though, so I can make sure it doesn't happen again!