Excel crashing randomly
bho...@officeformac.com
Does anyone know of a fix? there's no updates from MS on the new office suite yet..
Very dissapointing- I would have thought MS would have spent more time testing the software...
suggestions.... anyone....
JE McGimpsey
bho...@officeformac.com wrote:
> I have the latest version of Excel (2008) running on 4 different machines all
> running 10.5 with all the latest updates- what's happening is the program
> will crash (on all the machines at different times) haven't narrowed down
> what's causing the crash, but I've noticed if I have a file open, and I copy
> something to paste into another program- this will work one time. when I go
> back into Excel to copy a second field, the program will crash. I'm also
> finding other key commands are causing crashes- but it's not consistent.<br>
Ugh. Intermittent or random problems are always difficult to diagnose or
fix.
Is the copy/paste/activate XL crash consistent, or is it also
intermittent?
Which method(s) of switching applications cause the crash (e.g.,
clicking on the XL window, using CMD-tab, clicking on the XL icon in the
dock, etc)?
Does this happen in a new user account?
Does it happen with *any* "another program" or just specific one(s)?
Does it happen with any workbook/worksheet open, or just specific
one(s)? Old (.xls) files? New (.xlsx)? or both?
Are you using a custom template?
Which "other key commands"?
Do you have any haxies running?
> Does anyone know of a fix? there's no updates from MS on the new office suite
> yet..
There aren't any updates yet. OTOH, it's only been 19 days since it was
released...
> Very dissapointing- I would have thought MS would have spent more time
> testing the software...<br>
FWIW, yours is the first report of anything like this that I've seen.
Given that, and that it's intermittent, it sounds like something special
about your configuration or other running apps. Doesn't necessarily mean
it's not a bug, just that it's unlikely MS can test for every possible
interaction.
Maur...@officeformac.com
In order to eliminate a number of possible factors, I created all the charts from scratch in Excel 2008, and pasted them into a presentation also created from scratch in Powerpoint 2008. The crashes keep happening.
On one bizarre occasion, the Excel document disappeared in the background, as if it had closed itself. It was not showing in the open documents window, and was nowhere to be found. When I reopened it, it appeared and let me keep working on it. After five minutes or so, a dialogue box appeared reading "The document abc.xlsx is already open. Reopening it will cause all changes to be discarded. Do you want to reopen abc.xlsx?" True to form, the only option was "OK." That is, do you want to lose your changes, or do you want to lose your changes? Sure enough, I lost them.
Unknown
JE McGimpsey
Does it happen in another user account? If you print to PDF?
Have you updated your print drivers?
Unknown
In order to switch apps, I'm using cmd+tab. The crash seems to happen more often when I come back into Excel from the other app also using cmd+tab, and then trying to copy from the Excel doc (Excel will crash right away when i do that).
The copy/paste crash is more consistent than anything else- seems to happen all the time.
Not sure if the crash is affected by copying into other programs- have to try that.
So far, this is happening with Excel docs that were created in Office2004- maybe that has something to do with it....
Not using any custom templates
So far the copy/paste command is the only one I'm experiencing the issue with
Haxies? not familiar....
JE McGimpsey
> I only have one user account on each machine.<br>
What happens when you create another account, and try to Copy/Paste?
Unknown
Excel crashes when printing to pdf as well either as a save to pdf or if printing to Adobe 8.0 print pdf driver.
JE McGimpsey
> I only have one user account. Everything is up to date re HP Printer drivers
> and I am using 10.5.1 on a Mcabook Pro that is 6/7 months old.<br>
> <br>
> Excel crashes when printing to pdf as well either as a save to pdf or if
> printing to Adobe 8.0 print pdf driver.
Does the same thing happen when you create another user account?
Unknown
For someone like Microsoft not to spot this for a product so long in the making is beyond me - I have been using these products since version 1a!!
Todd Aton
Todd Aton, SDET
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
On 2/4/08 11:42 AM, in article ee8b...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Chris" <Chris> wrote:
Todd Aton
- Copy a selection in Excel.
- CMD+TAB to another application.
- Paste.
- CMD+TAB back to Excel.
- Copy a selection in Excel.
...and then you crash?
Are there missing steps? What application are you pasting into?
Thanks,
Todd Aton, SDET
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Unknown
yes, the steps you describe are exactly what I'm doing, and then the program crashes.
I haven't narrowed down which program I'm copying into as being an issue- but I do notice that it will happen when I'm copying install keys into program installers (I keep all my install keys in an Excel doc for my entire office). I do know this happens while copying into other programs, but I just can't remember which ones cause the issue more than others.
One thing I can tell you, is I've notice this happens mostly when working with an Excel doc that was created in Office 2004. I don't believe there's an issue with Excel files created in 2008- but I may be wrong.
Maur...@officeformac.com
1) Select Excel chart
2) Command Tab to Powerpoint
3) Paste on slide - at this point, the Excel spreadsheet disappears from the background.
4) Command Tab to Excel - at this point, Excel crashes.
This usually happens after a while of going back and forth between Excel and Powerpoint, not immediately after opening the file. Once I get the first crash, however, Excel will crash on each successive relaunch. Rebooting the computer temporarily solves the problem.
uber...@gmail.com
I'm getting the same copy/paste crashes in Excel--even copying within
the program itself. I'm running 10.5 with a 1.8ghz MacBook Pro w/2GB
RAM.
On another note. Performance overall is terribly slow. Sometimes it
can take 30 seconds to open up an Office program. This in comparison
to Office 2003 on a 700Mhz Pentium 3 which opens literally instantly
(as does 2003 under Parallels). Charting in Excel is slow as well with
a 1-2 second input delay on newly added data that is being charted. My
old PowerBook 5300c (117Mhz) could run excel spreadsheets FAR faster
than this--especially dynamically charting data--and I made great use
of it in science classes back in high school. As hard as it is to
believe, Excel runs faster on a 117Mhz PowerBook with 24MB Ram than
and 1.8ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 2GB RAM!
While I can deal with the slower speed. The crashing is making Office
2008 all but unusable in a work environment. Here's hoping MASSIVE
fixes are coming really soon.
Corentin Cras-Méneur
> Is the copy/paste/activate XL crash consistent, or is it also
> intermittent?
FWIW John, I see it all the time as well.
Not 100% reproducible, but almost 50%.
Excel also crashes quite frequently importing .csv files.
Corentin
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Unknown
This is very frustrating!
Q...@officeformac.com
I will be entering data then all of a sudden it will just close down losing the data.
Unknown
It seems consistent that when I save, any of my work does not get saved and Excel crashes.
Bob Greenblatt
Ebbett " <> wrote:
Have you repaired permissions after you installed Office 2008?
--
Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom
Unknown
THIS IS REALLY IRRITATING AND ANNOYING, THIS SOFTWARE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RELEASED IN THIS CONDITION, FIX IT ASAP OR RECALL IT.
Bob Greenblatt
Lyle " <> wrote:
Calm down a little. While I have seen other reports of this, I personally
have not experienced it, and I am using Excel 2008 every day for hours at a
time and have not yet had a single crash. While it may indeed be Excel's
fault, I'd be more inclined to believe that it is somehow related to your
configuration. Have you tried creating a new user, logging on there and
using Excel?
Unknown
I use Excel 2008 everyday as an accountant and it crashes everytime I go to print so I still use 2004 to print anything, annoying but easier than changing user account which is counter productive.
Microsoft needs to ship the update to resolve these issues very soon.
Bob Greenblatt
<Chris> wrote:
Chris,
Excel does not require you (or anyone else) to create a new user either. As
I said, I did not and it works fine for me and a whole lot of others. I just
offered that as a suggestion to try to get to the root of the problem with
your configuration. I agree with your frustration and need to get this
resolved. But, so far it is not clear to me that this is indeed Microsoft's
problem. Therefore it is unreasonable to expect them to fix it until it can
be determined that it is. I'm just trying to help you identify the cause.
We are all pretty sure that Microsoft is working on an update to Office
2008. However, we don't have any idea what that update may contain, or when
(or even if) it will ever be available. So, now is the time to make sure
that if this is indeed their problem, report it so that it can get on their
to do list.
Unknown
How on earth does one track it down if no other program experiences this issue, I am using some of the latest intel based kit with standard products all installed from scratch, no shareware, freeware or minor programs and no unusual settings either.
I have trapped the crash log details follow which seems to indicate that it is a known issue to be updated. I also note that Excel is very busy requesting the first line at about 4 times a second for every second it is up and running which can not be efficient. I do not know whether this means anything to you?
21/02/2008 16:39:16 Microsoft Excel[530] CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
21/02/2008 16:39:16 Microsoft Excel[530] CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
21/02/2008 16:39:16 Microsoft Excel[530] The function `CGPDFDocumentGetMediaBox' is obsolete and will be removed in an upcoming update. Unfortunately, this application, or a library it uses, is using this obsolete function, and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system performance. Please use `CGPDFPageGetBoxRect' instead.
21/02/2008 16:39:16 [0x0-0x55055].com.microsoft.Excel[530] Ignoring Quickdraw drawing between QDBeginCGContext and QDEndCGContext
21/02/2008 16:39:16 [0x0-0x55055].com.microsoft.Excel[530] Thu Feb 21 16:39:16 Macintosh.local Microsoft Excel[530] <Error>: The function `CGPDFDocumentGetMediaBox' is obsolete and will be removed in an upcoming update. Unfortunately, this application, or a library it uses, is using this obsolete function, and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system performance. Please use `CGPDFPageGetBoxRect' instead.
21/02/2008 16:39:16 [0x0-0x55055].com.microsoft.Excel[530] Ignoring Quickdraw drawing between QDBeginCGContext and QDEndCGContext
There is a lot more of this together with Excel trying to communicate through the firewall for some reason trying to listen to an IP address 0:0:0:0: followed by various port numbers is this the problem perhaps, the use of a firewall?
Phillip Jones
document the paste information in new document and save.
BTW: Pleas don't use all caps that's equivalent to shouting at the top
of your lungs and that will never get you anywhere.
Chris Lyle wrote:
> I HAVE LOST HOURS OF WORK DUE TO EXCEL RANDOMLY CRASHING. THE GREAT PART IS EVEN FREQUENT SAVING OF FILES DOES NOT HELP. THE RESTORED FILES CANNOT BE SAVED AND THE LAST COPY OF THE FILE BEFORE THE CRASH CANNOT BE REOPENED BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN "MODIFIED OR DAMAGED"
>
> THIS IS REALLY IRRITATING AND ANNOYING, THIS SOFTWARE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RELEASED IN THIS CONDITION, FIX IT ASAP OR RECALL IT.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |pjo...@kimbanet.com, ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!
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<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
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Pet...@officeformac.com
Enter a table of data.
Make a pivot table of that data.
Create a chart of that pivot table.
Move the chart to another sheet
Ctrl-click on the top-right-hand corner of the chart and choose "Select data"
Excel crashes.
Who the **** tested this?
bho...@officeformac.com
If they released software that was tested and worked properly, they'd be called Apple.
JE McGimpsey
Pet...@officeformac.com wrote:
I can't replicate this when I try to follow your steps - I get the
Select Data Source dialog. Does this happen for you with a new workbook?
If you can replicate it, can you either post very detailed steps in a
reply, or post a file to somewhere it can be downloaded along with
detailed steps?
> Who the **** tested this?
FWIW, I have yet to be able to cause XL08 crash in many months of
regular and fairly heavy use.
Doesn't mean that it *should* have crashed for you, of course but it's
likely to be something related to your setup or perhaps workbook
corruption.
Unknown
I have tried another account. Still crashes but doesn't take out the whole computer.
Unknown
Warning: Use of this software may cause workbook corruption.
Unknown
1) Select a cell in Excel and copy it.
2) Switch to the Finder, or any other application.
3) Switch back to Excel.
4) Select any other cell and try to copy it.
5) Excel will now crash.
I've found that I could usually prevent Excel from crashing in this instance if, after switching back to Excel (step 3), I hit Enter or Esc (to make the marching ants around my copied cell go away) before selecting a second cell to copy.
Unknown
For the above example I was running XL08 on a new MacBook Pro, with Mac OS X 10.5.2 and all other Apple updates installed.
iThomasM
> I too have see excessive crashing of Excel '08, especially withcopyand pasting. A reliable way to cause acrashseems to be...
>
> 1) Select a cell in Excel andcopyit.
> 2) Switch to the Finder, or any other application.
> 3) Switch back to Excel.
> 4) Select any other cell and try tocopyit.
> 5) Excel will nowcrash.
>
> I've found that I could usually prevent Excel from crashing in this instance if, after switching back to Excel (step 3), I hit Enter or Esc (to make the marching ants around my copied cell go away) before selecting a second cell tocopy.
My Excel crashes all the time when I copy text and then Apple+tab to
another application like Firefox to use the content (like a URL).
This is extremely annoying.
Here is the best work around I found. Save your file as a .xls and
then download NeoOffice and use that. Seriously. One man can only
handle so many crashes. After about the 5th time in a row, I tend to
find other outlets. I hope Microsoft fixes this soon.
Unknown
I have a feeling that part of my problem might have been something to do with Apple's preview function in Leopard.
But there is nothing in Excel 08 that makes me desire to work through problems that MS should have already sorted.
Unknown
and I don't think that the world suddenly is full of corrupted workbooks that cause all these crashes - HELLO! - it's the software.
I've experienced so many crashes in Excel now - and - surprise, surprise - in different workbooks... and the same thing happens...
My crash pattern is usually linked to Pivot tables- change data source areas and have Excel update the Pivots - when finishing the new Pivot from the wizard - Excel crashes most of the times. I instinctively save all the time now - which is very annoying...
How new is this version of Excel? Why do we Mac users still have the ancient Pivot interface - while the PC version of Excel is far more advanced and professional in terms of toolbars, Pivot palette, etc?
Unknown
Clearly, this version of Excel was not properly tested, though it was late. In addition to this annoying problem, I also found out today that there is no simple way to add x-axis labels as there was in the old version. Did Microsoft have any real world users actually try this before releasing it? Based on just these 2 issues, I'd have to say NO.
Unknown
Oh, and I keep getting an "out of memory" error. as though 3GB with nothing running isn't enough memory? It's not even doing calculations, it's just tables of text. How can you get this wrong?
Unknown
I guess Excel has been storing recovered versions of the document so that I can recover my saved data after the crash... The problem is that the workbook itself seems to be crashing excel. So now, opening excel automatically opens the bad workbook which crashes excel... Any way out? It's now completely unusable.
bho...@officeformac.com
<http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/microsoftoffice2008formac.html>
the update supposedly fixes the issues discussed in this thread.
What's strange is the Office updater (as of 3/14) says there are no updates. Is MS delaying the release on their update server for some period?
Alan124
> I wonder if you can copy all the information in the cells open a new
> document the paste information in new document and save.
>
> BTW: Pleas don't use all caps that's equivalent to shouting at the top
> of your lungs and that will never get you anywhere.
>
> Chris Lyle wrote:
>
> > THIS IS REALLY IRRITATING AND ANNOYING, THIS SOFTWARE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RELEASED IN THIS CONDITION, FIX IT ASAP OR RECALL IT.
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
> 616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
> Martinsville Va 24112 |pjo...@kimbanet.com, ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!
>
> mailto:pjo...@kimbanet.com
>
> <http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
> <http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
> <http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
> <http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
> <http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>
>
> <http://www.vpea.org>
Hi,
Does the problem cause corruption of your excel file? If so, I think
you can try a popular Excel file recovery tool called Advanced Excel
Repair to repair your Excel file. It is a powerful tool to repair
corrupt or damaged Excel files.
Detailed information about Advanced Excel Repair can be found at
http://www.datanumen.com/aer/
And you can also download a free demo version at http://www.datanumen.com/aer/aer.exe
Maybe the information will help.
Alan
Phillip Jones
only . This is a Mac newsgroup.
Pat McMillan
thread: http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Excel/822.
Thanks,
Pat
On 19/03/2008 15:28, in article ee8bc...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Bret"
<bretr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I also get constant crashes. It happens for me when I attempt to maximize the
> workbook window. It is very frustrating since I work in excel on a regular
> basis and bought Office so I wouldn't have to go into Fusion all day.
--
Pat McMillan
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corp.
This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Bret
tony...@juno.com
I'm experiencing a different kind of crash situation than any i've
seen in the post thus far...
I have a file that was created in Excel 2004 with 3 worksheets. One
of the worksheets has 92 lines of data (the spreadsheet is a file I
use to log sales & revenue information on a daily basis, before it is
inputted in the accounting system). So the data is text, dates, and
numbers.
For some reason, there is a small area of cells that, when a number is
entered, causes Excel to crash. In the original file, it was the
group of cells at E85:G89. The only way I could enter new lines of
data was to insert blank rows above row 81.
Additionally, I had formulas at the bottom of each column, in row 92,
that summed the column. There was then a formula in cell L92 that
summed across that row of totals. There was a group of cells at
I81:J91 that, when numbers were entered, were properly totaled at the
bottom of the column, but the formula in cell L92 was unaffected.
I recreated the file from scratch after closing Excel and restarting
(just to be safe), never opening the old file and entering data from a
printout I'd made of the old workbook. When I reached the same area
in this new file, I get the same errors.
Have you EVER heard of this error? It ONLY happens in this one
particular sheet in this one particular workbook. There are no macros
or pivot tables. There are links from the "bad" worksheet to another
worksheet within the workbook, but no links in the workbook that go to
any other file (though there are links in another file to this
particular workbook; that workbook has had no issues).
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Tony
On Mar 19, 8:49 pm, Pat McMillan <patmc...@microsoft.com> wrote:
> We are aware of this, and think it may be an Apple bug. Please see this
> thread:http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Excel/822.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pat
>
> On 19/03/2008 15:28, in article ee8bca5...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Bret"
Pat McMillan
before. Here are a few questions:
1. Are you opening the file in 2008 when it crashes, or in 2004?
2. Can you copy the crash log from the "Microsoft Error Reporting" window
and email that to me?
3. Is it possible to send me a file with this problem? Perhaps by changing
all text and/or numbers in the workbook so the data is meaningless? If so,
please send to patm...@microsoft.com.
Thanks,
Pat
On 3/25/08 8:21 AM, in article
9e939611-bdd7-4d72...@s13g2000prd.googlegroups.com,
owen shell
> I will be entering data then all of a sudden it will just close down losing the data.
I am also experiencing the same thing. I am typing data in an Excel Spreadsheet and in a couple of minutes the message appears stating that an error has occurred and it must shut down. I asked for an error report but it means nothing to me.
After having this happen a couple of times, I was able to save a few entires because anticipating this would happen, I closed the program after a few entries. This is not a very efficient way to have to work.
What remedy is there for this problem?
Pet...@officeformac.com
Maybe you were already using the updates, and couldn't reproduce it for that reason.
JKA...@officeformac.com
Jill
Dennis Davidson
Bob Greenblatt
Davidson" <dpdavi...@mac.com> wrote:
Sounds like the workbook is corrupted. A macro that runs for 2.5 hours is
hardly routine. Without knowing any more about the workbook, what it is
linked to and what the macro is doing it is impossible to suggest anything
other than reverting to a backup and trying again.
--
Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom
J COMPTON
>
> Does anyone know of a fix? there's no updates from MS on the new office suite yet..
>
> Very dissapointing- I would have thought MS would have spent more time testing the software...
>
> suggestions.... anyone....
I have been experiencing a crash about every 5 or 6 keystrokes while I am simply trying to input data into fields, using the auto-complete function. This renders the software pretty well useless. Any suggestions?