Excel crashes when cell is populated

[Labone]

Hi,
One of my users has a very strange problem.
Yesterday afternoon his Excel 2000 started crashing every time he tried to type anything into any cell. It didn't matter whether it was a new or existing worksheet he was using, he would open Excel, open the required spreadsheet or use a new one, then as soon as he tried to type anything into a cell, either a letter or number, it crashed with the 'This program has generated errors and will be closed' message.
He can fill the cell with colour with no problem but try to type a letter or number and it crashes straight away.

The curious thing is, it does not do this when logged on to the PC as Administrator or even a completely different domain user who does not have admin privileges.

I have repaired Office, removed and reinstalled office, applied SP2 for Office and nothing works.
Does anyone have any bright ideas as to what might be causing this?
Thanks

 

[DaveC84]

It sounds like it must be a profile problem. Have you thought of re-creating the users profile?

 

[Labone]

Yes, I was sort of coming to that conclusion myself but am trying to resist.
What confuses me is that yesterday morning Excel worked perfectly, then it started crashing so I was hoping it might be a setting that has been inadvertently changed in Excel and I could just (un)tick a box to cure the problem.
Also confusing is that whilst I was looking at it this morning, the user actually managed to type some data into a cell and save it without it crashing. We then closed the spreadsheet and re-opened it and it crashed as soon as we tried to input something.

It's very strange and I was hoping for a simple answer but it looks like I might have to bite the bullet and recreate his profile.
Thanks for the help.

 

[DaveC84]

Have you run it with nothing else running on the pc at the time. Also I suppose you could look to see if there were any add-ins running with Excel?

Was anything eles installed on the machine before excel stopped working?

 

[Labone]

Yes I have made sure it is the only thing running and there are no add-ins on this particular PC. The user only uses Excel in a very simple way and is the sort that will ask us before making even the smallest change to any applications.
That's why I think he may have clicked on something inadvertently as he wouldn't 'mess about' with Excel in case he caused any problems.
I'll keep looking. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[xlbo]

search the profile and /or hard drive for *.xlb
This is the XL toolbar configuration file and is the most common cause of corruption within excel. Dlete that and see if the issue goes away



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

 

[Labone]

Thanks Geoff.
Just tried that and it worked a treat!
I thought it must be something fairly straightforward.

Thank you for your help.

 

[xlbo]

yup - 9 times outta 10, if XL is "being funny and crashing" it is a corrupt toolbar file. User will have to change their settings back to how they were but better than XL crashing all the time !

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

 

[firefytr]

The XLB file shouldn't be too big, generally 20-80 kb. If you search for it and it's anything (generally) over a meg, create a new one.

I'd recommend just renaming it also, *.xlb.OLD or something, so you still have it to go back on if that wasn't it; unless you like rebuilding toolbars.

Also make sure Excel is closed when you rename the file.

-----------
Regards,
Zack Barresse

 

[KenWright]

The giveaway is usually the line

"it does not do this when logged on to the PC as Administrator or even a completely different domain user "

About the only setting that is user specific and doesn't get blown away when you recreate a profile is the *.xlb

Regards
Ken...........

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission
----------------------------------------------------------------------------