Windows update affects XL97 AutoFilter

[CLR]

Hi All.........
I wrote a program a couple of years ago that has worked fine ever since,
till today. Today MIS blessed all of us with an unannounced "Windows
Upgrade", (WinXP) that took over our computers and demanded a re-boot or
would not function any further until we did. Once taking the "upgrade", it
took 2-3 re-boots to get back to normal. Then, when re-opening the Excel
Program, the AutoFilter function started acting up. The database is 16000
rows and about 25 columns. The procedure is.....First filter on a dropdown
from the column C arrow, then on one from the column G arrow, and then
delete one row.....then try to filter on a different selection from column G
and Excel freezes up. Does not work from there on. Before today, this
procedure worked fine. Doing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and trying to "EndTask", shows
two instances of Excel in the window......non-responding, even tho we only
had one running. This all in XL97, the same on two different
computers.......when I tired the same thing with the same file in XL2002
from the same network directory, all worked fine. The problem appears to
have affected XL97 but not XL2002, and apparently was not related to the
file as such......have not tired with XL2000 yet.

Anybody run across anything like this yet? If so, any fixes...........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Jim Cone]

Hi Chuck,
I saw a post ( I know not where) in the last day or so that blamed
an XL97 crash on the installation of IE7. Perchance is that
what the upgrade was on your system?
Regards,
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.officeletter.com/blink/specialsort.html



"CLR" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
Hi All.........
I wrote a program a couple of years ago that has worked fine ever since,
till today. Today MIS blessed all of us with an unannounced "Windows
Upgrade", (WinXP) that took over our computers and demanded a re-boot or
would not function any further until we did. Once taking the "upgrade", it
took 2-3 re-boots to get back to normal. Then, when re-opening the Excel
Program, the AutoFilter function started acting up. The database is 16000
rows and about 25 columns. The procedure is.....First filter on a dropdown
from the column C arrow, then on one from the column G arrow, and then
delete one row.....then try to filter on a different selection from column G
and Excel freezes up. Does not work from there on. Before today, this
procedure worked fine. Doing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and trying to "EndTask", shows
two instances of Excel in the window......non-responding, even tho we only
had one running. This all in XL97, the same on two different
computers.......when I tired the same thing with the same file in XL2002
from the same network directory, all worked fine. The problem appears to
have affected XL97 but not XL2002, and apparently was not related to the
file as such......have not tired with XL2000 yet.

Anybody run across anything like this yet? If so, any fixes...........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Guest]

Hi Jim...........thanks for the thought, but my IE is still 6.0 on this
machine, so that wasn't it. For the record tho, I was able to successfully
run the process on XL2000 (which machine also got the upgrade).......also
noticed that the process worked fine in 97 if I deleted the CommentBoxes out
of one of the columns......but 2000 and 2002 work fine with them in place.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Dave Peterson]

I had a worksheet that got corrupted a longggg time ago (xl97, IIRC).

That worksheet had a ton of comments and was formatted like a ransom note! I
always had a gut feeling that it was all the comments that contributed to the
corruption. My guess is that xl97 doesn't handle worksheets with lots of
comments in them very well.

I use xl2003 now, but still try not to use a lot of comments.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the comment Dave. I share your concern. In this instance tho,
there were only 20-30 CommentBoxes (out of 16000 rows by 25 columns), and all
in that one column.....but maybe that was enough to mess up 97......maybe
I'll try deleting them one at a time and see how many it does take........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Dave Peterson]

When I did this, I lots more comments.

But just a gut feeling--I would expect the problem to be in excel (or the
workbook) than the update to windows. (But that's just a gut feeling.)

 

[Guest]

Hmmmm........
A. The file works fine in XL2000 and XL2002.
B. The same file, from the same location does not work in XL97 (on two
computers)
Therefore:...it would appear the file is OK, and that the problem is either
caused by the Upgrade, or was in both installs of 97.

The comments were added starting a couple of months ago, but the problem has
only been noted since the Windows Update...... The procedure has been done
in XL97 many times, however, to be fair, we are not positive the procedure
was done in XL97 since the start of the comments and before the
Update.......it could be simply that XL97 will not handle the CommentBoxes in
this instance, whereas 2000 and 2002 will......and the Windows Update was
just a coincidental occurance bringing it all to our attention.....but then
again, it could be that XL97 depended on some feature in Windows that was
changed with the Update and 2000 and 2002 were originally designed to not
depend on that feature.........

Probably will never know unless someone in the Excel/Windows Design Dept
gets ahold of this and clears the air..........

Thanks again for your thoughts.........
Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Gord Dibben]

Chuck

If you have an idea of which Windows Update did the deed, you could go into
Add/Remove in Control Panel and remove that update to see if 97 would restore to
its former state.

Assuming of course that you have not deleted the Update Install files from
Windows folder.


Gord

Hmmmm........
A. The file works fine in XL2000 and XL2002.
B. The same file, from the same location does not work in XL97 (on two
computers)
Therefore:...it would appear the file is OK, and that the problem is either
caused by the Upgrade, or was in both installs of 97.

The comments were added starting a couple of months ago, but the problem has
only been noted since the Windows Update...... The procedure has been done
in XL97 many times, however, to be fair, we are not positive the procedure
was done in XL97 since the start of the comments and before the
Update.......it could be simply that XL97 will not handle the CommentBoxes in
this instance, whereas 2000 and 2002 will......and the Windows Update was
just a coincidental occurance bringing it all to our attention.....but then
again, it could be that XL97 depended on some feature in Windows that was
changed with the Update and 2000 and 2002 were originally designed to not
depend on that feature.........

Probably will never know unless someone in the Excel/Windows Design Dept
gets ahold of this and clears the air..........

Thanks again for your thoughts.........
Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Guest]

Hi Gord..........
Thanks for the suggestion, but I can't get in to Add/Remove....MIS has me
locked out. I have no idea what Update it was, except that there was one
last week and one again on Monday.....probably it was the most recent release
as of Monday.......which was the one that we noticed the problem. We don't
do them voluntarily....MIS just pops the notice up on the screen that it has
occured and you must re-boot.....right in the middle of whatever we might be
doing........the "don't want to reboot right now" option is greyed out........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3