When i open a shared excell file, its blank! Why?

[BannerMan]

A number of our users access a shared excell file across the network. everyone can see the share and open the file. One user however, only sees a a blank sheet when she opens the file! We have tried re-installing excell on the client pc and re-naming the shared file, to no effect. The share is working fine but the file still appears blank to this one user. Any ideas?

 

[carty]

Is the file totally blank or do you get at least a grid?

 

[BannerMan]

the user sees a grid but there is no data at all. Appears to be a fresh sheet.

 

[Zelandakh]

Try loggin on as that user on a machine that works. Try logging on as another user on that machine.

Are we looking at a user problem or a machine problem?

 

[Dreamboat]

Have her hit Window on the menu and see if she's just opened a new window on top or something.
If she's got a shortcut, make sure it's going to the real file and not the old version or something.
techsupportgirl@home.com
Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

http://www.brainbench.com

 

[Guest_imported]

This sounds very much like one that I've been trying to sort for some time now. I been getting the same sort of problem accross a small number of users amongst a couple of hundred. In my case the fields normally appear grey but sometimes in the same way that you're getting. We've been upgrading our users to IE5.5 and as soon as we upgrade a particular division they start to encounter this problem (weird I know) so I'd be interested to know if this might be happening in your company. The only way round this for me so far has been a reboot though this doesn't work everytime and will come back again.I wonder if this the same problem as you're getting? More details please (OS,Excel ver,etc...)

 

[BannerMan]

Resolved the problem! Not sure why it was happening though.
As suggested by Zelandakh i logged on as the problem user on another pc and could see the file properly. This pointed towards a computer prob. Then went back to the users PC and removed the drive mapping to the location where the file is stored. Re-mapped the drive and she can now see the file properly!?! This has me even more confused than when it wasnt working. She could still see the share and open other files in the same location, but this one file opened up blank. Bizarre.
Hugh. I dont know if I.E was updated TO 5.5 just prior to this fault appearing but the users at this site do install a lot of 'rubbish' and do upgrades themselves, so this may have been caused by that. They use Win98, Office 2000se.
Thanks to everyone that offered suggestions! Appreciated.

 

[mrtweaks]

I have found IE5.5 seems to alter a few programs it changes netmeeting enough to cause errors on Internet Wall Waiting

 

[BannerMan]

Its started happening again!
When the user tried to access the file today it is blank, as before. I have tried breaking the mapping and then re-mapping it, didnt work. I have tried a re-boot in the middle of the above operation, still to no effect. I checked the I.E version on the PC and it is 5.5. This was upgraded AFTER the problem started by the user, who changed from Office 2000 pro. to Office 2000 SB version. Now im truly stumped.

 

[carty]

Probably a silly question, but have you tried an office repair instead of re-install. It can be handy sometimes.

Carty

'I think your cat's drilling behind your sofa'

 

[Guest_imported]

The problem I have with this (though still can't be 100% sure that we have the same problem - at least for the same reason!)is that it's not entirely persistent so you can't be sure when you have actually fixed it. I tried upgrading one user who seemed to be able to always reproduce the problem to 128MB ram. She came back to say that this had cured it. Two weeks later it came back! I've also tried reinstalling the NT service pack but this doesn't seem to have worked either. The only thing I will say is that I've never sween this with the 98 or 2000 users. That said we only use 98 on laptops here and the 2000 users have higher spec machines.

 

[BannerMan]

Hugh. We have implemented a workaround that seems to have solved the problem, although i have no idea why. We have created a shortcut directly to the file on the desktop. This opens the file (with the data there!) everytime, no problem. Has held up for a day now (got the user to open and close it as often as poss) not ideal i realise, and i am now determined to find out why this is happening. Give it a try and let me know if it works for NT.

 

[Guest_imported]

Well I'm not sure if this would help because all the people who have the problem are opening the file locally anyway, either opening as an attachment or copying down off the network. Incidently, the user that I reinstalled the service pack for says that this has improved things and that if the problem occurs she can now get round it by simply closing and re-opening the file! It gets weirder by the day though I always take what the users tell me with a pinch of salt. Will try this for another user soon and see how this goes.

 

[SimonDavis]

Is it possible that while all this is going on, (assuming you're using an NT domain) that the users access permissions, or membership of workgroups is beng changed? Or maybe the file permissions.

If the problem is so inconsistent and changes with rebooting (therefore logging the user off and on) it could be a network problem.

Sorry I'm not an expert in this, but it's something to try.