Excel graphics frozen

Question

Hi,

I have a large Excel file (around 184 MB) that has been very difficult to use lately as this issue has been coming up with greater frequency.

Without any seeming consistency in terms of what I am doing or what is happening on my PC, the graphics for that 1 workbook or Excel instance (other instances are fine) becomes frozen, sometimes after a few minutes of using this workbook but it can be never and work fine for days as well. I don't believe I run out of RAM or have my CPU be at 100% when this issue occurs. This issue has persisted for a long time, through various office installations, and various completely new workbooks (by copying all formulae over).

Most of the time, the 'picture', what I see, becomes frozen to the extent that calculations do not show change. I know the calculations still occur because I can copy and paste values to another sheet and the new results are what is pasted, not what I actually see when I am copying. I can type text and that shows immediately. I can scroll around and that moves me around the sheet. Changing sheet works as usual and coming back to the initial sheet does update the calculations graphically.

However, sometimes it gets worse from the initial above issue, to be where the 'picture' does not change at all. I can click in various places, I can type text, I can use the scroll bars, I can change sheets etc, except the 'picture' does not change. I know the underlying functionality works because any new changes can be saved and I can see them when I reopen the document (which is another issue because it can take 30+ minutes to open, so it's not a simple 'solution' to just restart it).

Out of all the menu buttons, only File makes a graphics change and that is to virtually a completely white window. I can hit where the File button initially was to go back to the initial 'picture'.

My file has sensitive information so I don't wish to upload it.

I would like to ask if anybody else has come across this issue before and any solutions you had for it. I have tried to search, perhaps not rigorously enough because I don't quite know how to describe this issue and the appropriate search terms, but I haven't found anything quite like this.

I haven't tried contacting support yet as I don't have the time currently to wait for my turn and to go through this issue so I've decided to ask a question here for now.

Answer 1

I apologize , I don't have any solution for you as of now. I hope another expert can help you to resolve your problem.

Thank you.

Answer 2

One might say it has a lot of sheets (around 20), but really the great great majority of the data is in 1 sheet so that doesn't really help with reducing size; in making new workbooks I think that 1 sheet has over 90% of the file size. Currently, I am basically working off 2 files; this very large file has the main data and the initial calculations associated with that data and a 2nd file that has a sheet that refers to each respective cell in that large sheet (note this is also on Manual calculation, and run on a separate instance), and I run further calculations from this 2nd file since it is quicker to use and open.

I am skeptical that size, in and of itself, is the culprit of slow opening because I'm pretty sure people have very large files larger than mine that open basically instantly/doesn't take minutes.

I'd like to note I have tried to look into how to make my Excel open faster but I can't seem to get it to become any quicker than now (e.g., I have no active addons, I have repaired and reinstalled Office many times before, there is no conditional formatting in that large sheet).

Answer 3

I apologize.

Does your large file have a lots of worksheets? Did you try to divide your large file into to two files by moving another sheets into another file to reduce the size?

Answer 4

Hi Rodel,

Thanks for that. However, my 30+ minutes time to open is with this tip, or with my file already set with Manual calculation and opening it in a new instance. I don't really notice any significant time difference between these 2; maybe the first is slightly faster.

Answer 5

Hi, I am an independent adviser and I would like to help you to resolve your issue.

One of the reason on having a problem on opening a large excel file is due to over use of formula in the file.

Please follow this steps.

First open a blank excel file and go File > Options > Formulas > Select Manual on Calculation options then click ok. After this you can open your excel file.

Hope it help. Thanks you.