Excel 97 crashes if row 2841 has merged cells.

[baobob]

Launch Excel 97 SR 2. On any worksheet, EVEN a blank one, go to row
2841. Merge two cells in that row. (E.g., highlight A2841 and B2841,
and do Ctrl-1 / Alignment tab / Merge). Should you File Save now, all
is OK.

Then, at any other place on the sheet, Insert or Delete (doesn't
matter) a Row or Column (doesn't matter). Then File Save.

As Paul Lynde once said by way of an answer on Hollywood Squares, "I
don't know what you got, but I got a sports shirt."

I enter this somewhat obsolete Easter n-EGG-ative into the record, for
those like me who still use Excel 97.

If you get this problem, just un-merge all cells on row 2841 and the
problem goes away.

Also, you can merge cells above or (nuttily) below 2841 to your
heart's content, and there seems to be no problem, as long as row 2841
stays unmerged.

I see only one submission in this group on this problem, made in 1998,
and it wasn't replied to. Search on "2841", "crash" and "integrity".

That submitter was worried--very understandably--what user data Excel
might also be trashing. The bug is so specific that it does sound like
a deliberate, sinister Easter egg. (Does "2841" have meaning to some
disgruntled MS propeller-head?)

But so far, I haven't found any data being trashed. All you lose is
your work since you last saved.

I don't know when MS fixed this GPF, but they must've. On my other PC,
Excel 2002 seems to work OK.

But what about Excel 98, 98.6, 99-1/2 (Just Won't Do), 2000 (Light
Years from Home), or whichever Offices du Jour they've issued since?
Anyone?

***

 

[baobob]

More since last month:

When I said to prevent Excel 97 from crashing when there are merged
cells on row 2841, that you can just unmerge those cells, what I meant
was:

1) Once you are in a condition of having merged cells on row 2841,
then from that point on, I believe NOTHING you can do will prevent
Excel from crashing--if you add or delete another row or column.

2) So you must avoid arriving at that condition to begin with--which
is hard to do if, for example, there are currently merged cells on row
2840, then you insert one row, then later add or delete another row or
column. When you try to save, it's sayonara, Excel.

3) Likewise, if a newly opened worksheet has merged cells on row 2841,
the first thing you must do is unmerge them, if you're going to add/
delete rows/columns in that session.

4) After Excel 97 crashes with this bug, your file size may be
catastrophically smaller. I had an Excel file that was 1.5 MB, which
after crashing shrank to only 1.4 MB.

HOWEVER, on reloading the suspected file, eyeballing it thru-and-thru
seemed to show no corruption. All worksheets, range names, macros, VBA
code, and data were there. I've continued working and all looks fine.
(So if that's the case, what the hell was Microsoft doing with that
extra 100 KB? Calling Redmond?)

5) I suppose Excel 97 users might be advised to write a startup macro
in any large workbook to warn you of this condition. Or maybe one that
runs continuously in the background? (which I trust is possible by
using some event handler.)

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