More Excel 2007 Speed Issues

[Guest]

Someone wanted specifics, so here is a specific, reproduceable case.

I loaded 6 CSV files each with 7,200 records of time and sound level data
(I'm an acoustical engineer) into individual sheets in one workbook. I've
done this for years with 2003.

Drawing a line chart with three of these sets plotted against a common time
scale, dragging the graph around, etc. is significantly slower in 2007 than
2003.

I copied the graph from one sheet to another to edit it to refer to the
other three sets of data. When I click on one of the graphs to select the
series, 2007 sits, and sits, and sits...minutes go by. Task Manager reports
"not responding."

I saved the sheet as an XLS file and loaded into Excel 2003. Near
instantanioous response. Same moodel machines, both running XP. Also tried
on a MUCH faster dual core machine, with no obvious improvement; app still
sits and sits.

If someone from MS wants to look at the files I'll be glad to send them.

At this point 2007 is nearly unusable for me.

 

[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello Mach,

I would like to get the files and perform some research on this issue.

Please send the files to me. To get my real email address, please remove
the ONLINE in my display email.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Wei Lu

Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

I'm e-mailing you a ZIP file with the two versions, 2003 and 2007, in it.
The XLS version has additional graphs because I had to do my work there as
the 2007 version would respond so slowly or seemingly hang just with trying
to select a series.

 

[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello Mach,

I received your email and currently I involved our Excel enginner to help
me to isolate this issue. I appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

Thanks for the update and confirming you received them. Contact me directly
if you have questions; you have my e-mail with the files I sent.

 

[Guest]

Dear NormD and Wei Lu:

Has there been a solution to this? I have a similar problem which a 26
column by 700 row sheet. Seems to be a problem with the graphing system.

 

[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello ram,

This issue is still under investigation.

I will update if any progress.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

To be quite honest, I'd really like to hear something more than "We'll get
back to you if there's any progress."

I don't expect an instant solution. But has the probelm been duplicated?
Anyone even looked at it yet? What's going on? There are a host of reports
in this newsgroup about this basic problem. Clearly something is going on.

Right now, except for the most basic spreadsheets, Excel 2007 is useless it
is so slow. A flagship MS product deserves more than this.

 

[Guest]

Dear Wei,

Thanks for the response. I was wondering if you have been able to confirm
Norm's problem, i.e. do you see the same "slow" preformance as he reports?

Over the weekend I was at least able to keep my spreadsheet from "crashing".
Not sure exactly what worked but it seemed to be best if I saved the sheet
in 2007 format instead of "compatability mode."

One other thought was interaction of newly installed Excel with virsus
software. I am using MS One Care. At some point with One Care I recall a
message that programs may run slow as it checks all of the program files.

 

[Guest]

I've tried it with both file types; there is no obvious difference between
the two in 2007. The same XLS file that crawls in 2007 flies in 2003. And
that's with the same AV programs. In addition, once the files are loaded
(which isn't the problem) AV is done with its checking as far as I know. The
slowness I'm referring to is just simple things like dragging a graph on the
screen or selecting one series out of three on a graph. It is nearly
instantaneous in 2003, and it crawls or stalls in 2007.

 

[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello Mach,

We did reproduce the slow performance issue.

As I have mentioned, I did not get the response from internal team. I am
double check with them.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello Mach,

I have send the request to the product team. Currently, I am waiting for
their response. I appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

Dear Wei,
Thanks for sending this on. Do you have any idea of timing?

In the mean time I am rebuilding my spreadsheet by copying and paste special
values one section at a time. I then built the equations (just sums) and
graph in excel 2007 and was doing ok until I added the sixth line to the
graph. It has now stopped responding.

Sincerely,
ram

 

[Wei Lu [MSFT]]

Hello Mach,

Product Team confirm that this is a known issue in Excel 2007.

I am still contact them for whether there is any workaround.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Brian M]

These "performance issues" are not isolated to Excel 2007 only.

This is a real problem across the entire Office 2007 suite, not just
Excel -- I have the Office 2007 Ultimate Suite running under a new
(clean) install of Vista Ultimate on a very high-end Core 2 Duo machine
with 3-GB of DDR2 and FAST SATA RAID drives (4 of them striped)

Compared to Office 2003 Pro: Word 2007 is 20 - 30% slower at opening
files. Excel is 45 - 60% slower across the board at everything. Access
is generally between 60 - 80 times slower over Access 2003. Our biggest
complaints have been with Access 2007. In fact, the EXACT same database
running under Access 2007 is SO SLOW compared to Access 2003, that is is
virtually useless to us. And don't even get me started on Outlook 2007!
Just do a search in Google for "Office 2007 is SLOW" and check out the
growing body of complaints out there. Seems that MS released a very a
poorly optimized code base in Office 2007 in order to get the RTM code
out the door before it was really ready for prime-time.

Does the software work? Of course it does. Does it work well?
Absolutely NOT!

These exact same performance issues plagued Office 2003 when it was
first released -- remember? It took several patches and SP's until 2003
was really fully optimized and marginally secured. I suspect that in
time, Office 2007 will "get there" too -- but in the mean time, the
easiest solution for now seems to be: Go back to Office 2003 until MS
optimizes the code base in 2007! Not much of an answer -- but seems to
be one of the more prevalent "answers" out there right now.

Good luck!


Brian M

 

[Tim C.]

Wei, et.al.,

To add a bit more to the knowledge base; I installed Office 2007 Pro but
left the XP Version (including Excel 2002) on my system. I am running XP
SP-2 and recently upgraded the memory from 0.5G to 1.0G.

Excel files that ran acceptably fast in the 2002 version now are
incredibly slow with 2007. I'm not talking about just "slower"; it's
unusable. A simple operation like changing the symbol size on a scatter
chart takes over 5-minutes to accomplish wiht 2007 while the same
operation takes only two or three seconds with 2002. This isn't because
of my learning curve w/r the UI, it is because of some terrible internal
problems with Microsoft's code.

I can supply a copy of the file.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[RichardF]

Hello Wei,

So, a month on, is there any progress on finding a fix or workaround
for this problem?

Thanks,

RichF

 

[Guest]

I am having the same problem. I am a very small business owner with no IT
staff. Since installing Office & Excel 2007 my productivity has decreased
significantly. I no longer have the 2003 version, so I'm stuck. In my
appraisal spreadsheets I can make an entry, walk to the kitchen for a cup of
coffee and return to the computer before the change takes place. I tried the
same spreadsheet on an associate's machine running 2003 and the changes just
zipped right through.
I am verrrrry interested in whatever fix MS can make.

 

[Guest]

I am also having the same problem. I thought it was the feedback sounds, so I
turned off all warings and sounds. It will run VERY slow. I have found that
if I run it right after a reboot, it runs fast. The next time I run it, it is
so slow I can go for a walk on a 480 row by 3 column spreadsheet (very small
- very slow). I cannot turn off the feedback sounds and they build up in a
queue that keeps getting worse. I don't know if the sound building up in a
stack is slowing down things. Does your Excel 2007 apps run okay after a
re-boot or are they still slow?

 

[Guest]

It's a little faster after a reboot, but the longer I work, the slower it
gets. Twice, the entire workbook has gone into some black hole where I can't
find it - I think I've lost all the data only to have it resurface again
when I reboot. I've been wondering if it has anything to do with all the
indexing that goes on in the background.
--
MaryH

I am also having the same problem. I thought it was the feedback sounds, so I
turned off all warings and sounds. It will run VERY slow. I have found that
if I run it right after a reboot, it runs fast. The next time I run it, it is
so slow I can go for a walk on a 480 row by 3 column spreadsheet (very small
- very slow). I cannot turn off the feedback sounds and they build up in a
queue that keeps getting worse. I don't know if the sound building up in a
stack is slowing down things. Does your Excel 2007 apps run okay after a
re-boot or are they still slow?

I am having the same problem. I am a very small business owner with no IT
staff. Since installing Office & Excel 2007 my productivity has decreased
significantly. I no longer have the 2003 version, so I'm stuck. In my
appraisal spreadsheets I can make an entry, walk to the kitchen for a cup of
coffee and return to the computer before the change takes place. I tried the
same spreadsheet on an associate's machine running 2003 and the changes just
zipped right through.
I am verrrrry interested in whatever fix MS can make.
--
MaryH

Hello Wei,

So, a month on, is there any progress on finding a fix or workaround
for this problem?

Thanks,

RichF

On 3 May, 08:57, (e-mail address removed) (Wei Lu [MSFT]) wrote:
Hello Mach,

Product Team confirm that this is a known issue in Excel2007.

I am still contact them for whether there is any workaround.

Sincerely,

Wei Lu
Microsoft Online Community Support

==================================================

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that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.