Random black boxes

Question

Hi all,

Please could someone advise me what is going on with this xlsm sheet, its very random, its only started happening in the past few months, its not driver related and i'm sure i used to resolve it with the "disable hardware option" within excels settings which has since been removed. It's always the one spreadsheet that's heavily used within the company.

Many thanks

Answer 1

Hi Chris,

Thanks for posting back with the requested information.

Your uploaded screenshots clearly show that your Excel is upto date.

Now, you mentioned that this issue only happens with all files with a specific file format (.xlsm) with Macros running! In this situation, I would recommend you also try to do online repair: Repair an Office application (microsoft.com).

And if the issue persists, kindly contact support. You can contact your company IT admin to help you raise a Ticket to Microsoft support so that you can have a remote session with engineers from that side, and they look into your file together and give necessary help. See steps: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Docs. We would also love to continue troubleshooting, but our category doesn't have permission and resources to conduct remote sessions with customers, and for sure some issues are hard to guess if you don't closely get into access to the file itself.

Thanks for your kind understanding and patience.' Good luck and stay safe!

Sincerely,

Edwine | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Hi Edwine,

Thanks for getting back to me.

From what I've seen it's various excel sheets, all with macros running and multiple tabs. It's very sporadic as to when it happens and the cells in which it happens. If it happened all the time i could understand running in safe mode to test it but due to how random it is running in safe mode isn't ideal.

With regards to testing the sheet in a browser, the macros won't run so I can't ask anyone to try it via that route as they need the macros running in order to perform their role.

Look forward to your reply.

Thanks

Answer 3

Dear Chris,

Greetings! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community.

We're so sorry for the inconvenience this issue has caused! Please let us work together and fix this problem.

From your description, it seems this problem happens to a specific Workbook and a specific format .xlsm! is it so?

If yes, you mentioned that you used to fix it using disable hardware option, and it is removed. What version of Excel are you using? is it up to date? can you please go to File > Account, and if the version is less than the latest version updates it. See the latest version with corresponding update channels: Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn. and Install Office updates (microsoft.com).

1. It seems the issue is with desktop app. May I know if it is the same case if you open this file in Excel for web in the browser? If this file is saved in OneDrive/SharePoint, you could open it in browser and see the behavior.
2. Please confirm if this issue happens with a specific Workbook or even newly created Workbooks? and only with .xlsm file format?
3. Provide a screenshot of your Excel version. You can get this information via File > Account.
4. You may also start Excel in safe mode and see if the issue happens there: Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC (microsoft.com).

Kindly understand that the initial reply may not solve issues, but we can collaborate and bring issues to a conclusion.

Thanks for your cooperation and patience. Please post back and keep us posted.

Sincerely,

Edwine | Microsoft Community Moderator