Excel 2003 crashes when typing a vlookup

No, the spreadsheets don't contain any VBA.

Try these things and test the file after each one.

1) Run Detect & repair from the help menu in Excel

2) Running a repair on the file - Open Excel, navigate to the file and click the small arrow on teh open button and select Open & Repair.

3) Run Office Diagnostics from the All programs - MS Office - MS Office Tools

4) Check the users profile for any .xlb files and remove (backup to another location) they are normally stored in c:\docs and settings\profilename\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel

5 & 6 are a long shot as they should affect all users....

5) Check the Insert - Name menu and see if there are any names that contain a square looking character

6) Check the Format Styles menu and see if there are any names that contain a square looking character

Ask the users to open excel on safe mode (hold down Ctrl while opening excel normally), then open the workbook and try entering a function. If that works ok, it points to one of the files loaded at startup, so try disabling all addins, removing any files from any of the XLSTART directories, and rename or move the Excel11.xlb file (you can add .old to the extension) and start excel again. If that's ok then you can add the files back one by one until it goes loopy again! :)

MrExcel1981 - Thanks for your response.

1) and 2) made no difference.

3) I didn't have a program called office diagnostics under Microsoft Office Tools

4) There are no files saved under the user's Excel path...
C:\Documents and Settings\ahunter\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
...except a folder called XLSTART, which is empty.

5) Contains nothing with a square looking character

6) Contains Comma [0] and currency [0].  Didn't know if these are a problem or not?

rorya - Thanks for your response.

Running Excel in safe mode works fine!  

I unchecked all the addins the user has installed and removed the Excel11.xlb file and then restarted Excel but it still crashes.

Do the available addins have any affect on Excel, even if they are not active???  

Thanks again.

No, they shouldn't do but you should also check for COM add-ins and see if there is an additional startup folder specified in the Excel options (Tools-Options-General tab) in the 'At startup open all files in' option. COM addins can be located in the registry under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins
or:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins

Anything whose Loadbehavior value is set to 2 or 3 (I think) is being loaded automatically. If you set them all to 0 as a test, keep a note of the original values to reset them later.

rorya - Thanks again.

There is nothing in "At startup, open all files in" for that user.

There is nothing under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins

Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins there is an addin called GoogleDesktop.OfficeAddin.  I changed the value for the load behaviour to 0 and relaunched Excel but the problem still persists.

Grrrrr!

Can you open a new blank workbook and create a VLOOKUP without crashing?

What happens if you uninstall Google Desktop completely (It is known for causing problems with Excel).

MrExcel1981 - Yes, it's not all spreadsheets that are affected.  There are only two spreadsheets where we have noticed this behaviour, however like I say I can create a vlookup on these spreadsheets under my login OK.

rorya - Google Desktop was already uninstalled.  I removed the registry key but nothing has changed.

Thanks again.

Does the file crash when you are typing the last argument "false" in the VLOOKUP?  if so try using 0 instead.

I have been experiencing the same thing for two years now - it crashes when the "F" in FALSE is typed - as if it is a reserved character. Seems to happen after Excel has been open for a while.Three different machines, three different locations. I'll try the "0" remedy.

MrExcel1981 & szy8xj - Thanks for your replies.  No, we don't get as far as that!  We get as far as =vlookup(A1,  then when you click on the workbook you want to select from Excel crashes.

Hmmmm I am starting to run out of ideas.  Is there anything unusual about the path of the file that you are trying to pass as an argument to the VLOOKUP?

Maybe a reinstall of excel or rebuild the users profile.  Quite drastic I know but I have found that rebuilding a users profile has corrected VB errors in the past.

I was starting to think that rebuilding the profile might be the way forward.  It's a pain for me and a pain for both users, but at the moment I can't think of anything else, unless anyone else has any good ideas???

YES!  Uninstalled KB973475 and the problem has gone away!  I replaced the .xlb file because my user is very fussy about his icons and the problem has not come back.

rorya you really are a genius, Experts Exchange are not lying!  How did you know that this update could be causing the problem?  I Googled the problem and found nothing useful.

MrExcel1981 & others thanks also for your contribution.

The xlb file didn't seem to have any impact, it just seems to have been the update that was causing the problem

Well done rorya!

Sadly enough, I was thinking about this last night and I had a feeling I had seen something similar posted in another forum I frequent. Sure enough, I located it and the solution after a search this morning! :)
Rory

Now I'm googling KB973475 I can see lots of posts about it, but they do not seem to refer to vlookups so much, just links.

Either way Rory it's much appreciated. Cheers.