Excel 2016 crashes often

Question

I see that may other Excel users have the same issue with similar crashing behavior.  Excel starts normally, works normally for a while on spreadsheets, then eventually freezes, restarts, becomes a corrupted Excel page (menus blank out) etc., at least once a day with normal usage.  Often the crash will occur when switching from Excel to a different app like Word or Chrome, then switching back to an open Excel spreadsheet. 

Talked to MS Support from another support section and went through several steps and finally got this response:   “From your description, you are using a consumer subscription and the crash is possibly caused by the personal licensing server. Since our forum focuses on Office 365 for Business Online services, we recommend you post a thread in the Answer forum, which is a specific support channel for handling related queries, for further assistance.”  

-I have no trouble with other Office Apps.

I have tried at least the following to fix the problem with no improvement:  

-Increased RAM to 16 GB

-Used OffCAT check and repair

-Uninstalled and reinstalled Office 365 twice

-Operated in Windows 10 Safe mode (Office could not start)

-Operated in reduced graphics mode (computer uses Intel HD Graphics 5500)

-Turned off Touch Screen

-Turned off Antivirus, removed third party apps for Excel, removed COMs for Excel.

-Sent log file to further investigate the issue. The log file location %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs\Application.evtx by default.  -There was no obvious answer from this file.

-I have no issues with any other software on this computer.

Computer specs: Win 10 64 bit, 16 GB ram, Intel i7-5500, Dell Inspiron 7352

Thanks

Paul

Answer 1

many people in our company (Nokia) are having Excel 2016 issue.  It is slow (E.g., if you protect/unprotect a worksheet 10 times in 2007 and in 2016 using VBA, you will know the difference), and easy to crash, without letting user know what went wrong. It's a big step back in terms of reliability.  Excel 2007 and even 2003 are classic and stable, I guess some newly added features in 2016 damaged the overall structure.

Answer 2

4 day later after installing both Office 2016 and Office 2007, using only Excel 2007 with the other Office 2016 apps, I can report NO Excel crashes, even with many spreadsheets open to stress Excel, and many other files open.  

This never happened with Excel 2016 which would be guaranteed to crash every ~1 day of normal use.  So this looks like my solution....  Maybe Microsoft should include a free Office 2007 license with Office 2016 for people with this issue.

-Paul

Answer 3

Hello,

You may also uncheck 'Disable hardware graphics acceleration' from File> Option>Advanced >Display and see if it helps.

You may also try troubleshooting steps from the article below and check if it helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2758592

Refer to the following article for instructions on how to check for error log in Event Viewer:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-information-event-logs-event-viewer#1TC=windows-7

Answer 4

Windows Clean boot mode did not fix my issue.  Excel eventually crashed again as before during normal use.  Next idea is to revert to an older Office package like Office 2010 if I can find a valid CD-ROM & license.

thanks

Paul

Answer 5

Hello Paul,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

Though you have mentioned about having checked the issue in the Windows Safe Mode, have you tried opening Excel 2016 and working in the Windows Clean Boot mode?

If not, then you may check if the issue occurs while working in the Windows Clean Boot Mode.

To restart in Clean Boot follow the steps as per the following Microsoft Article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Note: The steps provided for Windows 8.1 in the above article applies for Windows 10 as well. After you have finished troubleshooting, follow steps under “How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot” in the article to boot to normal startup.

Hope the above information helps.

Thank you.