Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of ScuzzyJo
ScuzzyJoFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

asked on

Excel 2007 Save and Save As Problems

Hi

I'm having difficulty saving Excel files, both in 2007 and 97-2003 formats.  Some of the files are quite large, but not ridiculously so.  Excel frequently hangs during the save operation and, even when it does manage it, it's still really slow.  The problem is worse when saving across the network, but pretty bad when saving locally.  It's quicker if all the file links are broken but, obviously, this is not feasible for many files.  Typically, Excel crashes on me 5 or 6 times a day - more on manic reporting days.

I have heard/read various comments about it being caused by the Microsoft Office Validation, a security update, and so on.  I've also seen lots of pages that suggest registry changes.

I do remember that in my last role, the I.T. department came round and took one of the Microsoft updates off the machines to resolve this (can't remember which one).

Does anyone have a definitive answer that will definitely solve this?  The problem seems to apply to Access too, though that might be for a completely different reason.

I don't have administrator rights on this machine (damn them!) but if I have some kind of good reason why they should go down a particular path, I think I.T. will be prepared to try it.

I'm awarding 500 points, but won't be able to award them until the solution has been tried, tested and proved to work, so it may take a couple of days.

Thanks
Sarah
Avatar of Tobias
Tobias
Flag of Switzerland image

Dear,

You should tell the IT to have a look and run from admin the diagnose of office :

Diagnose and repair Microsoft Office

(You could also try from your account but maybe not all the problem will be corrected)

Regards
Avatar of ScuzzyJo

ASKER

Hi

Thanks for the answer but other users have the same problem so I don't think there's a problem with mine specifically.  Also, I definitely remember an update being taken off where I last worked which fixed the same or a similar problem.

Thanks
Sarah
SOLUTION
Avatar of joyofsharing
joyofsharing
Flag of India image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Also depending on what version of OS you are running whether Windows 7, Vista or XP if my documents is mapped using x:\location try to change this using \\server\location and also try adding the folder location in Document Properties where the excel file lives.
All

Thanks to all of you.  I've looked at both the links, but no success... :-(

On the internetworks one, it only talks about Office11, which I don't have on my machine - I checked the registry and I definitely only have Office12.

On the Microsoft one, I couldn't find:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation

I found it up to \Security but haven't got the FileValidation bit.

I also looked at the installed updates via the Control Panel and couldn't see KB2501584 anywhere.

Also, I can't run any of the Fix stuff as I don't have administrator rights on this machine.

I haven't tried the drive mappings bit yet, but will let you know the outcome of that one.  It also misbehaves when saving locally though.

Thanks
Sarah
Ooops!  Forgot to say - am on XP Service Pack 3.

Thanks
Sarah
Dear Sarah,

Maybe now you could try to use the diagnose that I suggested?  :-)

Regards
Hi MadShiva

I can't.  They're really strict on access rights here and I don't have the rights to run it.  Even though I said it wasn't just me having the problems, I would have tried it if I could have done.

Thanks
Sarah
Avatar of OOsorio
OOsorio

The actual update is KB2501584 as described previously. When in Programs and Features select, at the upper left, View Installed Updates to get a listing of only the updates.
Hi

I've tried those as Thomas Davis suggested earlier.  I'm running on XP, so don't have Programs and Features\View Installed Updates but I have checked it in a similar way on Add/Remove Programs with the Show Updates box ticked.  I can't see it in there.

Is there anything else that might cause this problem?

Thanks
Sarah
Try disabling your AV for about 15 minutes while you work, test, the behaviour of the Excel files. Let's see if this helps. Maybe an update to the AV is causing this.
Dear Sarah,

Try Adding the EnableShellDataCaching value to the Microsoft Windows registry.

To do this, follow these steps:
1. Close your Office programs.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
4. Locate, and then click to select the following registry key:
Office 2003
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Open Find
Office 2007
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Open Find
5. After you select the key that is specified in step 4, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
6. Type EnableShellDataCaching, and then press ENTER.
7. Right-click EnableShellDataCaching, and then click Modify.
8. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
Note Any non-zero number in the Value data box will turn on caching. A zero number or blank (default) will turn off caching.
9. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833041

Kindly keep us posted.

joyofsharing ( ^ _ ^ )
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Hi

I've done this and tried it on a couple of files and it's definitely quicker!  I need to test it a bit more to be sure, so will do that and will award the points tomorrow if they're all OK.

Interestingly, someone gave me an internal Citrix address (not really supposed to use that, but hey!) and it's like lightning!

Thanks
Sarah
Hi All

Thanks to all of you for all your help on this.  I've used joyofsharing's post and have opened and saved back a few large files.  It's still slow, but it hasn't been crashing at all, so I think that's a fantastic improvement.... fingers crossed!

I'm going to split the points as thomasdavis also came up with the same idea, but joyof sharing gets the lion's share for giving me detailed instructions on how to edit the registry for the fix.

Hope you're all OK with that.

Thanks
Sarah
Big Yes. We all learn from the experience.