Windows 7 EX not responding

[Terry James]

Since upgrading to Win 7 a couple of months ago I have suffered repeated episodes of XL stop responding.
The last workbook I was using stays on the screen but all of the controls are grey and dead. Can’t switch to other workbooks.
Only way out appears to be via ‘task manager’ to close XL resulting in the loss of unsaved work.
This seems to be triggered when loading a file via a ‘desktop’ shortcut, particularly if it is a xls file in ‘compatibility mode’ but also happens with xlsx files.
Anyone had the same problem or has a solution?
Terry

 

[EvanDavis]

What version of MS Office are you using ?

 

[Terry James]

Sorry Evan, I should have said.
Microsoft Office Home & Business 2010
Terry

 

[EvanDavis]

Have you tried doing a Repair on Office ?

Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features > CLick MS Office and at the top of the screen you will see " Repair " that will give you the optiion to repair Office, you might need to have your Office install disk handy, but not always the case.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

There is a possibility that there is something else causing a stop issue. I see it a lot on my crappy little desktop at the house. I use process explorer to watch what is happening from CPU usage to processes running at the time.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

If XL is hanging, a repair could help. Never hurts to check what is happening with your machine.

 

[Terry James]

Hi Evan & Surfer.
Just done the repair, it made no difference.
Tested it by creating a desktop shortcut from an old xls file and then try to open the file from the shortcut. XL locked up again.
Re started XL then the shortcut worked ok.
Then opened a different old xls file from 'Explore' no problem.
So it seems that the fault is generated when trying to open a xls file from a new desktop shortcut for the first time.
If there is no fix, I will be carfull to open any old files from the explorer and save them as xlsx files before creating a desktop shortcut.
Thanks Terry

 

[Stoneboysteve]

Terry,

Did you associate the extenstions with the new applications? Right click on the icon, slect open with, then select default program. From there navigate to the appropriate 2010 Office program. I had to do that for Word, Excel, PPT, etc

Stoneboysteve

 

[Terry James]

Hi all, very interesting.
Opened an old xls file 'Electrics' from explorer ok.
Closed it and created desktop shortcut.
Opened the same file via the shortcut, XL froze.
Leaving XL frozen with file 'Electrics' showing as open on the XL tab, went back to explorer and right clicked 'Electrics', used default prog etc. XL un-froze and worked as normal.
Presumably it is a design fault in MS Office.
Regards Terry