Excel Crashes Killing Me

[Steve Drenker]

Excel 2004, SP 11.2.3
PowerBook G4, 2 GB RAM, OS X 10.3.9

I've been working on a complex Excel financial model for a month now. I was
putting the final touches on the whole thing this afternoon when it suddenly
crashed. Previous crashes (many) left the model in a stable state and
recoverable. The model has about 400 names ranges and many macros. It
generally has been running stably.

Unfortunately, that's not the case tonight.

I save sequential backups frequently by shutting down Excel, duplicating the
file in the Finder and naming the backup file with a numerical sequence
number. I've got 70 previous versions.

The latest version crashes Excel very soon after opening the file.
Troubleshooting includes:
1. Running DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro 4
2. Running Disk Utility to repair permissions
3. Reinstalling Excel
4. Reinstalling the latest SP
5. Trashing all the prefs files
6. Turning off all but a few fonts in FontBook
7. Reverting to a previous version of file (went back about 3 versions).
This will require re-creating the already completed work from the last day
or two.

It seems all for naught, however. It looked promising for a while, but the
crashes keep coming back, even with a previous version of the file. Crashes
occur shortly after opening the file. I don't know if Excel is stable with
other worksheets.

I am so sick of the crappy performance and reliability of Excel on my Mac
that I'm very seriously tempted to run out and buy a PC tomorrow. I never
had these problems on my work PCs.

This is a major consulting project that is overdue and I've got to get it
done pronto. I'm losing hours and hours of productivity on these problems
(at least 8 hours this afternoon and evening so far).

Ideas?

Steve

PS -- Cross-Posted to microsoft.public.mac.office.excel. Sorry. This group
has only 561 messages, so I thought I'd post here.

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Here are some thoughts on the matter.

Have you looked at the possibility that the cause of the problem may lay
with the hardware. That you have progressively developed a complicated
spreadsheet (and assuming that it is only the latest version that causes the
problem) it could be that you have run out of resource.

You could look at stopping unnecessary software running at startup
Documents and settings\UserX\Start menu\Programs\Startup

You could also look at stopping unnecessary scheduled tasks running
Control panel/Scheduled tasks

(Some software install themselves to run at start up so it's a good thing to
check these two periodically anyway)

You could close down any other software when you know you're running this
spreadsheet - but this would be only a temporary measure.

Your hard disk may have become cluttered. Run Disk Cleanup and Defrag.
Unlikely but it's worth checking periodically anyway.

If the above don't work, you could consider increasing the memory capacity.
This isn't difficult or too costly.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Steve Drenker]

Hi, Bill. I've done all the things you suggest.
* Only Excel is running.
* Turned off auto-start background processes like antivirus.
* Installed 2 GB RAM, up from 512 MB a month ago
* Did a complete disk defrag a couple weeks ago. Ran all major disk
utilities last night

I'm going to try running the spreadsheet on a PC this morning (it's
currently on a Mac) and see if that solves it. Excel on Mac seems to be
notoriously fragile and unstable.

Steve

 

[Steve Drenker]

Bill...one other item. TechTool Pro reported back all hardware is operating
properly. I don't see any other symptoms of HW problems.
Steve

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Steve,

You wrote <<TechTool Pro reported back all hardware is operating properly.>>
There two interpretations of this statement.

One: A literal interpretation. This is what you want to hear but how does
it know that with 100% confidence?
Two: A sceptical interpretation. An assumption that, as it cannot find
anything that isn't working properly (or should that be that is working
improperly), it must be working properly.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Just had a thought. Is the computer running slow just other than when you
have this particular spreadsheet open? If so, the cause of the problem
could be spyware or a virus. Update both and scan for spyware and viruses.
It would be good to do this anyway.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Steve Drenker]

Bill
I took four backup and the latest version of files to Kinkos to open them on
a PC. They opened with no problem on the Dell with Excel 2003.

Problem only exists on my Mac PowerBook G5 at home.

Other non-Microsoft apps are operating just fine. I'm getting some flaky
behavior on several MS apps. I think I'll do a complete remove of the Office
2004 suite of apps and reload fresh.

I've got Symantec AV scanner running, but nothing has turned up.

I had the same thought as you -- just because TechTools is reporting
everything is OK doesn't mean that it is so. But other vendors' apps are
running reliably. Only MS is troublesome.

Steve