Page Fault BSOD when opening excel files

About Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a hugely popular spreadsheet program that is included as part of the Microsoft Office suite of programs. Businesses find it an invaluable tool for various accounting and mathematical functions while home users also gain invaluable use from it for various reasons. Whether you intend to use it for creating a home budget or are calculating the latest monthly profit figures for your company, errors can cause a loss of data as well as many lost working hours. There are certain steps you can take in order to prevent or cure these errors as well as steps to take in the event that you lose data.

Check The Shortcut To Excel

If you are experiencing problems opening Excel then it could be that the link you are using is no longer viable. This can happen for a number of reasons, many of which are unavoidable. In order to check this simply open Excel by navigating to the program file itself and not using the links that appear on your desktop or in the Start menu. If Excel opens properly by using the executable file instead of a link then you should delete existing shortcuts and add new ones that point directly to the executable program file.

Corrupt Macros And User Defined Functions

Many Excel users create their own user-defined macros but sometimes these can be the cause of any problems you are suffering from. In order to check whether this is the case open Excel in safe mode and uncheck all macros and user defined functions that are currently available when you open Excel. Restart Excel in normal mode and check the functions one at a time, restarting Excel after each attempt. When you find that you are having difficulties once again, the last function you selected is probably corrupt. Remove this and, if necessary, re-add or recreate the function.

Checking For Updates On The Microsoft Website

Check the Microsoft website for any and all recent patches and updates. Microsoft programmers regularly look into common problems and bugs and any fixes are subsequently released to all users via this method. Also ensure that your operating system is completely up to date by using the Windows update function. In particular, ensure you have the latest service packs installed for your version of Windows and then restart your computer and attempt to run Excel once again. You should consider turning on the automatic Windows update function to ensure that your system does not become outdated again.

Checking For Viruses And Spyware Applications

Run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to check that you have not got any spyware applications or viruses on your system. Windows files and folders are prone to attack because the majority of computer users have them on their computer in one shape or another. Run a full scan of both software applications and clean or remove any results that are found. Again, it will probably be necessary to restart your computer and attempt to run Excel. Open the file you were using when you suffered programs and attempt to re-enact whatever you were doing when the problem occurred.

Recovering Lost Data

If you do suffer any data loss then help could be at hand. There are several file recovery applications that will recover files even if you believe there is no trace of them. In a lot of cases, if you don’t use a secure file shredder, then these applications can even open files that have been completely removed from your deleted items. In a lot of cases, this lack of complete deletion can be cause for concern but if you are trying to recover Excel spreadsheets that have been deleted because of an error then you can recover them.

Conclusion

Microsoft Excel is an invaluable business tool and also serves a multitude of purposes for the home user. Despite its many applications and uses, though, Excel can suffer the same problems as many other software applications. Common problems include an inability to open Excel, an inability to open Excel user files, or a complete freezing while trying to complete a specific operation. The steps above are a general guide that you should attempt before contacting Microsoft support personnel for more in depth assistance that is geared towards your specific requirements.




and they to Re-intall the office because of spyware problem

OK.... 2 votes for the hard disk.  Will run chkdsk after a full backup.  I will try replacing ram anyway, just too eliminate that as a possibility.
Additional Info:  this happens in safe mode as well.  I ran Malwarebytes and it found 99 items, most of which were "image file execution" entries in the registry.  I have seen this before where they are there to hijack any anti-virus programs you may have installed.  Mbam.exe was NOT one of them, luckily, so it ran without any problems.  I will run additional AV scans to make sure it is clean.  I REALLY do not want to have to reformat this machine as it is used as a POS server in a restaurant/food court with 3 registers connected--and also has VPN software installed.

....and now that I've thought about it.....   I will back up the drive by cloning it to a new drive and try booting from that and seeing if excel works then.  Does anyone see a problem with this plan?

If the files are corrupted then cloning it will take the problem with you. A re-install of Office may be required.

Snibborg

OK.... will keep that in mind.   So Plan J is a possible office re-install.  Thanks!

If you copy the files to a different computer and they open then it isn't file corruption. (As a side note, a corrupted Excel file shouldn't ever cause a BSOD. A corrupted Excel might, but not a file). Cloning might work depending on how bad it is. It's certainly worth a try.

Interesting.....   I was able to open Excel itself by clicking the .exe, but when I would try right-clicking an Excel file and selecting "open", the PC would shut down and reboot.  When I do this in safe mode, I get the BSOD, specifically:  PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.  I forget how to read the mini-dump files.... I've done this before, but forget how.  Any guildance here would be helpful...    Keep in mind that this happens in other areas besides Excel.  While in safe mode, I tried clicking the "+" next to the My Documents folder, and got the BSOD, so the problem is not limited just to Excel.

That's because the hard disk is damaged at the location where those files (or part of them) are stored and not where the MS Excel is, so when you open the file and the Excel SW tries to read from the hard disk the windows reboots or you get the BSOD when gets on the bad sector or the scratched area. Even when you click the + in the My Document the windows will fail to load the files from the hard disk and again you get BSOD.

For reading mini-dump files:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315271/

Yes, that makes sense.   Looks like this is happening with Word files also.....  I double click to open, and I get a reboot or BSOD....    Just tried running Hitman pro.   it found a suspect file: OPOS2.bpl.  When I tried to save the log.xml file on the desktop, the PC rebooted.   This seems to be getting more serious.  

It usually does keep getting worse if the disk is failing. I'd just replace the drive and end all the misery.

OK......
Replaced RAM= same issue.  It is not RAM
Cloned HD to get a system back-up and replace the drive= same issue (as stated above, if files are corrupt, then a clone will not repair this.)
Ran CHKDSK on the clone:  it said the drive was clean.  Tried opening an excel/word file= same issue.
Examined the event logs and found this:  "rror code 10000050, parameter1 dcac0000, parameter2 00000000, parameter3 8063e662, parameter4 00000000."   No idea what this means....

Next, i will try reading the mini-dump file for anymore clues.....

Tried system file checker;  no go.  I have not rules out virus activity completely, but if this is virus damage as opposed to activity, then it looks like a reformat is the only way to go....

Before reformat you can defragment the partitions and see what happens, if still the same then reformat should fix things up. If there is any hard disk issues also will appear at this stage.

Looks like registry corruption.  Thanks to all who contributed possible solutions!!