Slow response for format function

Question

Office 2007/excel takes up to 1 minute to respond to a simply request to format a few cells - not an entire line; then once the dialog box pops up and I select a particular format and it takes another minute before it actually executes.  Similar response for copy/paste a few cells using mouse.

Answer 1

A few people have reported that if they changed to a different printer, then the

problem went away.

If that works, you could look for a fresh version of the printer driver from the

manufacturer's site.

sgb1959 wrote:

Office 2007/excel takes up to 1 minute to respond to a simply request to format a few cells - not an entire line; then once the dialog box pops up and I select a particular format and it takes another minute before it actually executes.  Similar response for copy/paste a few cells using mouse.

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Dave Peterson

Answer 2

First are you running SP2 for Office 2007 - choose Office Button, Excel Options, Resources and see if there is a reference to SP2 on the last line.

Also here are some of the suggestions from other threads:

Search for excel.xlb, *.qat and *.pip. Try searching and renaming this files. Check if excel works.

Then check these:

 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938538

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924611

Try booting Excel in safe mode and see if that helps:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

If still it doesn't work than, Click on Start > Contorl panel> programs > programs & features> Select office 2007> Change> click on drop down of excel and make it NOT AVAILABLE.

Click on Start > Run > regedit > hit Enter

Take back and then delete the EXCEL FOLDERS under following registry keys:

Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office

Start> control panel> programs> programs & features> highlight office 2007> change> click on drop down of excel and make it AVAILABLE.

 Warning - modifying the registry can cause serious problems if not done correctly - so you should make a backup first.

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If this answer solves your problem, please check, Mark as Answered. If this answer helps, please click the Vote as Helpful button. Cheers Shane Devenshire

Answer 3

Dave, although I didn't spot your answer in time, instead finding the same solution on TechNet, I would like to add weight to your response by confirming that the default printer, if no longer present, will cause a drastic slow down of the presentation of the format cells dialogue (this can be seconds or indeed minutes).

To be clear, if anyone is suffering from this problem simply change your default printer (in Windows 10, that is Settings - Devices - Printers & Scanners), and if you don't have a printer choose either XPS or PDF writers.

Answer 4

It's come up a few times before.

I remember reading a statistic (from MS????) that most windows crashes (70% or

more???) are caused by misbehaving printer drivers.

Shane, Devenshire wrote:

Hi Dave,

I knew printers and printer drivers can cause many problems, but this is new.  Thanks for the info.

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If this answer solves your problem, please check, Mark as Answered. If this answer helps, please click the* Vote as Helpful* button. Cheers Shane Devenshire

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Dave Peterson

Answer 5

Hi Dave,

I knew printers and printer drivers can cause many problems, but this is new.  Thanks for the info.

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If this answer solves your problem, please check, Mark as Answered. If this answer helps, please click the Vote as Helpful button. Cheers Shane Devenshire