Excel 2007 takes 60 seconds to open blank spreadsheet 4

[bjtechjmf]

I have loaded MS Office 2007 on my computer and two others for testing purposes before upgrading the entire company. I have run into several annoying problems that I have found fixes or work arounds for but this one has me stumped.

When I open an Excel spreadsheet, Excel opens and I get the hour glass for about 10 seconds and then I get my regular pointer back but the spreadsheet doesn't display. Excel is open but nothing shows. I discovered (through an accidental click) that if I minimize Excel, it immediately maximizes itself and the spreadsheet shows correctly. I also discovered that if I wait for 60 seconds the spreadsheet will display correctly. I have timed it again and again and like clockwork it always opens after 60 second. This leads me to believe that Excel is waiting for something and it is set to timeout after 60 seconds but I have no clue what it could be.

I get the same behavior on .xls files and .xlsx files and the size of the spreadsheet doesn't affect it either.

I found some info on MS website referring to spreadsheets being slow to open and the fix was to uncheck "Ignore other applications using DDE" but this option is not checked on my 3 test computers. I also found a post on another site suggesting and updated graphics card driver will fix the problem but for me it didn't.

 

[killermeteor]

How much RAM do the computers have. Office 2007 is a big memory hog. Employees for the company that I work for can't get it until their computers have been upgraded to at least 1.5 GB of RAM.

 

[bjtechjmf]

My comp has 2GB, the others have 1GB each.

thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Co7Homer]

What about virus scanning? My experience with Norton is that it will scan all files upon opening, causing all of the Office products to open very slowly. Neither MacAfee nor Trend does that.

 

[bjtechjmf]

What about virus scanning?

Great thought. We do have McAfee on all the computers but I don't think that is the problem because I received 2 new Dell computers this morning, I've loaded them with Office 2007, McAfee and all the other programs we use and neither of them has the same problem.

However, just now I opend an excel document and although it was slow to open, it did open correctly. One of the other 2 computers is now working also (the third is behind a locked door so I can't check it) so I don't know what the heck is going on. The only common factor between the 2 is that they were both rebooted last night.

I guess I'll move this issue to the back burner until it resurfaces.

Thanks to all that replied.

 

[bjtechjmf]

Looks like I spoke too soon. The problem is back

Then fun continues.

 

[xlhelp]

With Excel closed, look for an XLB or a QAT file. Rename and see if there is any improvement. Renaming these files will make XL loose any customization that has been applied.

Vita Brevis

 

[bjtechjmf]

look for an XLB or a QAT file

I found Excel11.xlb, Excel12.xlb, excel.qat, olkmailread.qat and word.qat. I deleted all of them and still get the same annoying problem.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[xlhelp]

Which OS are you using?

Vita Brevis

 

[bjtechjmf]

XP Pro on all computers.

 

[xlhelp]

In Windows Explorer go to Tools, Folder Options, find XLS (and then also XLSX) extensions click on Advanced. Select NEW. Click on EDIT and make sure Use DDE is checked and the text inside DDE Message box says
[new("%1")]

Do the same thing for OPEN option also, but the text will now be
[open("%1")]

If this doen't solve your problem, then I am at loss. Someone else may have better ideas.

Vita Brevis

 

[bjtechjmf]

Thanks xlhelp for the suggestions but unfortunatley that diden't correct the problem. Everything was already set as you suggested.

 

[GlennUK]

Do you have Google desktop on these machines?

Cheers, Glenn.

Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

 

[hawkdaddy]

Is there a mapped network drive that is no longer available to these computers?

 

[bjtechjmf]

No Google desktop on any of the computers.

 

[theo1881]

i've seen the same and also errors such as "not enough system resources to display correctly" when using excel 2007

this is on 2ghz quad core, 2gb ram pcs !

how much more resources i have to throw at them to get it working seamlessly is anyones guess.

have you updated the installs to sp1 ?

Laters, phat, headshape

 

[bjtechjmf]

Is there a mapped network drive that is no longer available to these computers?

There are several mapped drives but all are active and accessible.

have you updated the installs to sp1

They are all on SP1 with all available updates installed.

 

[xlhelp]

Few more suggestions:

Is there an add-in that is causing the problem?

Do you have Norton Anti-Virus? If so, have you disabled the Office Plug-in?

Also, in additon to previous suggestion, do the following

In Windows Explorer; Tools; Folder Options; File Types; XLS; Advanced; Open (& also New); Edit...
In "Application to perform action" box:
- At the end of the line after /e append a space character followed by "%1" (including the quotes). For example:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"



Vita Brevis

 

[bjtechjmf]

Thanks to xlhelp for the help. The problem, at least for now, has been solved thanks to your latest suggestions.

I checked the add-ins and found one called obetexcelvbacommon. I disabled it and Excel would open correctly once but the add-in kept enabling itself causing the problem to come back. I did some searching and found the add-in was sitting in a PPC folder which is a program we no longer use. I uninstalled the PPC program removed the folder and the add-in dissappeared from the list in Excel and everything is working. However, now if I look in Excel at the add-ins, the obetexcelvbacommon is back and enabled but for now Excel is working.

Excel is still very very slow and seems to hang up often.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.

 

[dell8oy]

bjtechjmf,

Did you ever find a 'satisfactory' solution to your slowness issues? We installed office 2007 and people have learnt to live with the slowness but we are re-investigating the whole Office 2007 slowness "thing". Not only is Excel slow but Outlook is a joke at times, constantly erroring with "requesting data from servername" I am just starting the investigative process once again. If you have any comments I would be greatful. I am going to post a new thread requesting useful links to Office2007 fixes. The problem we have is its not just one thing, its Office 2007 full stop :O(

Cheers