Excel 2007 Nearly Non Functional

[Guest]

I have a core 2 duo processor, 4 GBytes of RAM (3.1 recognised) and recently
Excel 2007 is doing several bad things. It started as a Repainting issue. The
cell borders do not repaint unless I move the scrool bar to make the
spreadsheet move around. That is continuing.
When I have another program running, in this case Photoshop CS3, Excel 2007
is barely functional. If I do a simple task such as move a cell, the
"circular Waiting" icon comes up, and then the whole program goes gray/white
and it says Not Reponding at the top. Several other commends take a
horrendous amount of time, and then go into the Not Responding mode. I
reloaded the program, and the same response happened. My next thought is to
reformat and rebuild the computer, but I hope I can learn about some setting
that I need to correct.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Doug Horn

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

I have a core 2 duo processor, 4 GBytes of RAM (3.1 recognised) and
recently
Excel 2007 is doing several bad things. It started as a Repainting issue.
The
cell borders do not repaint unless I move the scrool bar to make the
spreadsheet move around. That is continuing.
When I have another program running, in this case Photoshop CS3, Excel
2007
is barely functional. If I do a simple task such as move a cell, the
"circular Waiting" icon comes up, and then the whole program goes
gray/white
and it says Not Reponding at the top. Several other commends take a
horrendous amount of time, and then go into the Not Responding mode. I
reloaded the program, and the same response happened. My next thought is
to
reformat and rebuild the computer, but I hope I can learn about some
setting
that I need to correct.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Doug Horn

Several possible causes come to mind. Firstly let's clean up.

From Windows Explorer, right click on the hard drive and click on
<Properties> then
Click on <Disk Cleanup> to identify and delete redundant files
Unticking <Allow Indexing Services to index for fast file searching>
<Tools><Defgragment Now>

This will, at least, make sure that you get rid of all the junk and
everything is in order.

Please come back if you still have a problem

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Guest]

Thank you for those points. I am in the throws of defragmenting as I write
this. That is no small task, as I have 3 hard drives, two 750 GByte drives
and a 250 GByte drive. The window seems to have no control or options, so I
hope it is not defragging all three drives. I selected my C drive and I hope
I am only working in that drive.

The defrag feature seems to have gone downhill with Vista. I only get a
simple window saying Defragging is happening. I used to like the screen that
showed the relocation of the files that was with XP, or possibly it was
Norton System Works, that showed that.
What would you recommend to do these basic cleanup chores on a schedule? Is
there something like Norton System Works for Vista yet?

Thank you again for your assistance.

Doug Horn
Udhailiyah, Saudi Arabia

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

If you selected drive C you will defragging Drive C: However, there's no
harm in also defragging the others. You'll get some benefit from it. if
it's taking a long time it's probably because it hasn't been done for a
while so you're paying the price for it now. Little and often is a good
guide.

This is probably only part of the problem. Come back when you've finished
defragging and, if the problem persist, I'll suggest some other chores.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Guest]

Thank you again for all your help.

I let the defrag finish and ran Excel. There seems to be a slight
improvement, but the repainting is still not perfect. What other checks would
you suggest?

Also how can I remove the "auto complete" and the "paste option" icons from
showing up?

Is there a utility available that will clean up the computer as you
suggested on a schedule, so I don't have to depend on my brain to remember?

Thank you for any thoughts.

Doug Horn

 

[Guest]

Another point I would like to add that may have some direction to your
suggestions.

When I have an application open in front of Excel, and close it, there is a
white blank spot for a while until I scroll the Excel window.

Thanks again

Doug Horn

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

OK. Now you've got rid of the dead wood, tidied up the hard disk and seen
some improvement now to look at other things.

You possible have software loading at start up. This will take up resource
and slow things down. I take the view that I will start things when I want
them to. I don't want them running in the background slowing things down
unnecessarily. To check this go into <Start><Run>. Type in MSCONFIG and
click <OK>. This presents a list of all the software that loads on starting
up. Unticking anything here ONLY stops it from running at start up. It does
not delete anything. You are fairly safe in unticking anything so if you do
get a strange result it's easy to reverse any action. Unticking one or two
at a time and restarting may be the way to go.

You may like to look at www.1001solutions.co.uk for some more hints and
tips.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

That brings us to another, possible problem. How's your memory? Have a look
at www.crucial.com to get information on what memory you have and upgrade
options.

If it's still sluggish you should, perhaps, be thinking of upgrading the
computer - but that comes at a price.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the info, I will work on that.

Is there a program like Registry Mechanic that works for Vista. The
documentation for Registry Mechanic states that is works "for basic issues"
in Vista but nothing states that it is a great application for Vista.

Any thoughts?

Thank you again

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

True. This another area in which a saving of resource can be made.
However, I would be wary of going there. Whilst I have used Registry
Mechanic (XP) for some while I would recommend it (or any other registry
cleaner) only on the basis that it works for me, it should work for you.

On the subject of cleaning up you could look at uninstalling unwanted
software. Be careful though. If you get it wrong you may loose
information. Only uninstall software if you know you don't use it.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Guest]

I have carried out everything as you suggested and have been brutal in
cleaning up the start-up programs and there seems to be an improvement.

BUT when I run Photoshop CS3 and open a few image files and run Excel, I am
back to where I was before.

The obvious response is to not run Photoshop and Excel at the same time, but
in the preferences of Photoshop, I have set the program to use only 55% of
available RAM, which should leave LOTS for VISTA Ultimate and Excel I would
think.

The very frustrating part of this whole issue is that I have what I believe
to be about as close to the fastest dual core cpu available E6700 2.67 GHz
and 3.1 GBytes of RAM recognised, (actually 4 GBytes installed) with almost
1.75 TBytes spread over 3 hard drives, current a video card with 512 RAM and
this is still happening.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Doug Horn