Excel Cells unresponsive

[JPJeffery]

Hi

Odd problem.

We've given a new PC to one of our users. It's faster, more RAM, everything should be good.

But a spreadsheet which worked fine before now freezes...but only the cells. The menus still work (although clicking on Exit/Close doesn't seem to do anything), the toolbars still work but you can't click on/in the cells, nor can you scroll them around. To resolve? Kill the prcess and start again.

Actually it's slightly more complicated than that because it actually runs from PowerPlus Pro (a Reuters app that provides data links between Excel and Reuters 3000 Xtra).

So, having killed off the process we have to close down Powerplus Pro, then restart it, then open the spreadsheet again.

This happens many times a day. We can't establish a pattern. There's nothing relevant in event viewer.

OS is XP SP3. Office is 2003 SP3. Windows Update up-to-date as of about 10 days ago.

Is crazy!

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[xlbo]

Does the new PC have any different anti-virus etc that might be conflicting with the Reuters app?

I know that Norton for example has been known to conflict with all kinds of applications / add-ins - especially those that "speak" to other apps as it sees these as potentially harmful

Rgds, Geoff

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all live in the same box.

Please read FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question

 

[JPJeffery]

Good thought, but same AV on the new PC as on the old PC.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[xlbo]

Is it Norton? Is the AV set up the same? Might be on the old PC, the Reuters app was "allowed" but not on new PC?

If it's not that, almost certainly something to do with the Reuters app conflicting with something in the setup of the new computer rather than an issue with Excel itself

Rgds, Geoff

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all live in the same box.

Please read FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question

 

[JPJeffery]

It's Kaspersky AV. Thing is the same AV Policy settings apply to this and all other PCs (including the old one).

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[cmeagan656]

Is the new PC 64-bit and the old one 32-bit?

Hope this helps.

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[JPJeffery]

Nice thinking, but no, both 32 bit.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[JPJeffery]

The user is away this week so I've been going on his PC to see if I can see the fault myself without him breathing over my shoulder.

And I did. I was able to retrieve the situation without the closing-the-process procedure I described above, by clicking on one the text fields in one of the toolbars.

Not sure exactly how much this helps but it's a start!

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[Gavona]

Excel.xlb stores modifications to toolbars and some of the settings in Tools,Options. It can get corupted. Try (searching for it) removing it from the picture to see if that helps.

Gavin

 

[JPJeffery]

OK, I found Excel.xlb and renamed it.

We also closed some of the (many!) toolbars he un-necessarily had open.

We then closed Excel...at which point it crashed horribly!

Trying Excel as an other user produced the same result.

When we restarted Excel all the toolbars were back.

We then searched for *.xlb files (under the user's profile) and renamed them.

Restarted Excel, toolbars gone.

Excel still crashes upon exit though, but a trawl through the event log shows .NET Framework 2.0 crashing. So, un-installed all versions of .NET Framework leaving v1.1 then re-installed.

Excel no longer crashes on exit. Hurrah!

Toolbars not reappearing. Hurrah!

Just waiting for the user to let us know if the original problem is resolved.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]