MS Excel

Resources before opening Excel : System 75%, User 75% and GDI 89%. After opening : System 65%, User 65% and GDI 84%. I cannot check resources after attempting to close Excel as everything freezes. System Restore has not relieved the problem.

Jean,

That seem very reasonable resources. No obvious reason for this error message.

Were it from Word, I would say "delete all occurrences of normal.dot", but that's no issue here. You might try, of course, deleting or renaming the Excel equivalent, your personal macro file (personal.xls, or something like that), that's opened automatically when you start Excel. It won't harm.

Nothing relevant to be found with google so. Some mention of the error message, but not at the start of the program, and no real help.

So let's take the brute force method: Repair MS Office from the Office CD (run Setup).

If that doesn't help: ever more brute force.
1. Uninstall MS Office (Control Panel)
2. Locate Office 2000 Removal Wizard (on the CD in the Office Resource Kit). Some details in http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2Fsupport%2FOffice%2Ffaq%2FOff2k.asp
3. Run the Office 2000 Removal Wizard.
4. Reinstall Office 2000.
If you look Outlook: backup your PST-file, because the wizard may remove it also.

Hope this helps.


Kees

Repair MS Office doesn't solve problem. Cannot find personal.xls or similar. Only .xls other than workbooks are EXCEL. EXCEL4. EXCEL9. XL8GALRY. XL8GALRY. INVDB. COMMON. SAMPLES. SOLVSAMP. The problem is not at the START of the programme but when I try to exit Excel. I'm loathe to uninstall and reinstall MS Office unless there is no other solution as my version is an upgrade and requires Office 97 first. Any further thoughts?

Jean,

The full name (in Excel XP) is persnlk.xls, but it might well be that it is only operational in a networked environment (as it is here on my work). Anyway, it's not likely to be the cause if the problem occurs at exit.

There seem two obvious (if unpleasant) workarounds:
- Only minimize the program, never exit it.
- Use taskmanager to kill it, never exit it.

I searched on google with excel "System resources dangerously low" which gave about thirty hits on the web, and 7 in the discussion groups. I remember reading one of them, that was about this error occurring when printing a spreadsheet, but I didn't concentrate on this message on exit. That's a very strange place, by the way.
You might try to repeat the search, and read through all hits. It might be helpful.

And, of course, are you sure you're free from malware? Use housecall.antivirus.com (online virus check), spybot and adaware to check. It's a remote possibility, but certainly won't harm.

That's all I have to offer to you regarding this problem.

Kees

Kees

I am at my wits' end. I've tried everything suggested and even reinstalled Office 2000. I had to do it through "Repair Office" and then "Reinstall Office" as it wouldn't work any other way. The problem still exists and I don't know what to try next as it's not very satisfactory to minimize every time; I regularly send updated Excel sheets by e-mail and can't do so now til I fix the problem. Any thoughts?

Jean

Jean,

Bob recommends in essence the same eraser or removal tools that I adviced a few posts above to use before reinstall. It's not clear from your posts if you did use that very useful tool, which probably would help.

However, Bob forgets to mention that you need to sign up to Experts-exchange for $9,95 for the first month to see the solution. The work-around for that: http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&q=%22windows+2000+computer%22+%22Outlook+Express+are+fine%22+site%3Aexperts-exchange.com&lr= and open the cache for the one hit this finds.

I don't see why you can't send updated Excel sheets by email with Excel minimized. Just close the spreadsheet leaving a blank Excel page, then minimize; that is for all practical purposes equivalent to exiting the program, and gives your mail program full access to the spreadsheet. And, of course, there's the File>Send To>Emailaddress to send the currently open and active spreadsheet by mail.

If you feel you need to get Excel working correctly, and even install after erasing it doesn't help, the only solution seems to be a format/reinstall of Windows, or - equivalently but somewhat more easy - use of the factory supplied Restore CD. But I have to warn you that it's a hell of a job to get everything safely up and running again while safeguarding all your data.
A very good alternative might be to download Openoffice (www.openoffice.org) and use its spreadsheet in stead of Excel.

It's up to you to choose if the easy tools (repair Office, virus checks) don't work.

Kees

The links and such are in the noted link. I didn't need to do anything more than tap the page done key...

Bob

Bob,

You're right. With one 'page down' I get a screen with a BIG link "Sign up to see this solution.". It should be on the top screen with a higher resolution that 800 x 600. Clicking that link gives a second screen with "You need to subscribe to view this solution" on the left and a nice 'pay plan' ($99.50 a year, payable by creditcard) on the right. That can't be misunderstood, I should say.

Still, three more page downs on the first screen, and there's the whole answer. For free. It's amazing.

Thanks for remarking.


Kees

Yes, you have to page down a few times.

In my defense I am just off the plane from a red eye flight from Long Beach to Boston and messed up a little. I hope that you indulge me in tapping the page down a few more times even though I didn't get the count right...

Cheers,

Bob

Bob,

You're right. With one 'page down' I get a screen with a BIG link "Sign up to see this solution.". It should be on the top screen even with a higher resolution that 800 x 600. Clicking that link gives a second screen with "You need to subscribe to view this solution" on the left and a nice 'pay plan' ($99.50 a year, payable by creditcard) on the right. That can't be misunderstood, I should say.

Still, three more page downs on the first screen, and there's the whole answer. For free. It's amazing.

Thanks for remarking.


Kees

Please forget the previous post. It was meant for Bob, but I misplaced it by accident.

What I wanted to say to you: very simple and good solution, if it works (which I hope). Much better then erase and reinstall, and very much better than a format and reinstall of Windows. That are both last resorts.

Is the Excel toolbar file something like normal.dot in Word? Never heard of it. Maybe a bit of explanation if Jean reports positively?

Kees

The Excel toolbar file stores information regarding menu changes and about any custom menus that one has created. The equivalent of normal.dot in Excel is personal.xls and not the toolbar file, but it is accessed/needed by Excel on startup.

Hi Swisse
Took a while to remember how to work in Safe Mode as mouse doesn't work there. Did what you suggested and exited Excel with Alt+F4. Safe Mode then froze solid and improper shutdown was required. I'm beginning to think a full re-install of Windows is going to be the only answer. My only hesitation with that is that I can't remember if backing up my ISP account details means I can just import them again when reinstallation complete.
Jean

Jean,

Depends on connection (dial-up, ADSL, Cable; and it might be different between different ADSL and Cable providers) and program (especially mail program, IE always works when there is a valid connection).

So: tell more!

Kees

Hello Jean,
thanks for reporting back. I still have one thing to ask of you. Start your PC again and do the following, then report back:

1. Locate the Excel toolbar file with the name Excel.xlb in the folder C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel using Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click Excel.xlb, then click Rename.
3. Change its filename extension to .kap. For example, if the file was originally named "Excel.xlb," then change it to "Excel.kap."
4. Exit Windows Explorer.
5. Start Excel.

If it still doesn't work I fear that you will have to do a clean reinstall of Windows. Hope I still have more suggestions.

Swisse

More help required, Swisse
Where do I actually find Windows Explorer? I know it appears in Ctrl+Alt+del but I don't have a lot of experience in problem solving. I just suffer problems!
Jean

Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and to the right you will see Windows Explorer.

Swisse
I do not see Excel.xlb in C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel unless it is within file folder "XLSTART" or Microsoft Excel Worksheet "Excel". What am I doing wrong?
Jean

Try this one:
C:\Documents and Settings\Jean(if you're logged in as Jean)\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

Swisse

Sorry, I'm having a particularly "thick" day and don't understand how to get where you're pointing me. Can you spell it out in idiot proof format, please?
Do you think it could be possible that a recent update of Zone Alarm is nuking things? There have been a couple of strange, but not too worrying, things going on of late.

Jean

Sorry Jean,
I did not see that your using Windows ME. Unfortunately I don't have WinME only Win98 and WinXP. WinME may have a different location where it stores the Excel.xlb file. Try searching for it by typing Excel*.xlb. For example click Start, then Search, then type Excel*.xlb and press Enter. Sometimes it is not exactly called Excel.xlb, but Excel10.xlb or something, that's why I use Excel*.xlb when searching. It should locate this file, rename it to Excel.kap, then open Excel and close it.

Swisse

All I can find is a file called "Excel" (no extension) full name "C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsft\Excel; I presume this is not what I'm looking for! Clean instal looking more and more likely. In which case, which do I keep and which do I jettison - I am running AVG 6 (I know that is on the way out) and Zone Alarm; I also downloaded Spybot & Ad-Aware (both of which find glitches in the system each time they're run). I can still exit a specific worksheet and minimize the prog, but it's a bit messy and uses up resources.

Ever hopeful, Jean

Your file extensions are hidden, you have to unhide them, by doing the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer again.
2. On the Menu click Tools, click Folder Options, and click View.
3. Look in the Advanced Settings for the entry Hide extensions for known file types and uncheck it.
4. Click Apply and OK.

Now do a search again for Excel*.xlb. I hope we could find it now.

Swisse

Excel sorted!! Thank you very much. I will keep all the notes for future reference.

Gratefully, Jean