How to troubleshoot crashing and

not responding issues with Excel

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Symptoms
When you open or use Microsoft Excel, Excel crashes, hangs, freezes, or stops
working. Additionally, you may receive one of the following error message:
Excel is not responding.
Excel has stopped working.
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the
program and notify you if a solution is available.

Resolution
Use the following methods in the order in which they are presented. If you try one of
these methods and it does not help, go to the next method.

Method 1: Scan Excel for Known Issues

To help you methodically identify and resolve known causes of instability in Office
programs, a diagnostic tool that is known as the Office Configuration Analyzer Tool
(OffCAT) was developed for customers by a team of escalation engineers from
Microsoft Support.

2939112 How to resolve crashing or stability issues in Office programs by using the
OffCAT tool

If your issue is not resolved after you use the OffCAT tool, go to method 2.

Method 2: Start Excel in safe mode

Safe mode lets you safely use Excel without encountering certain startup programs.
You can open Excel in safe mode by pressing and holding Ctrl while you start the
 program or by using the "/safe" (that is, excel.exe /safe) option when you start the
program from the command line. When you run Excel in safe mode, it bypasses
functionality and settings such as alternative startup location, changed toolbars, the
xlstart folder, and Excel add-ins. (However, COM add-ins are excluded.)

If your issue is resolved after you run Excel in safe mode, click the following article
number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
280504 How to troubleshoot startup problems in Excel

If your issue is not resolved after you start Excel in safe mode, go to method 3.

Method 3: Investigate possible issues with COM add-ins

Many developers create add-ins for Excel. These add-ins are divided into two types:

Excel add-ins that are saved as .xla, .xlam, or .xll files.

COM add-ins. These add-ins usually have to be installed and include DLLs and
registry keys. COM add-ins created for one version of Excel frequently are not
compatible with a newer version, and may cause crashes. They are not disabled by
Safe mode, and should be investigated separately.

To disable COM add-ins, follow these steps:

1. Select File > Options > Add-ins.

2. At the bottom of the dialog box, change the Manage dropdown to COM add-
ins, and select Go.

3. Clear the checkbox for any enabled COM add-ins. select OK.

If disabling the COM add-ins alleviates the issue, try enabling them one at a time to
test for the problem add-in.If these steps do not resolve your issue, continue to
method 4.

Method 4: Investigate Excel file details and contents

Excel files can exist on the computer for a long time. They are upgraded from
version to version and frequently travel from one user to another user. Frequently, a
user inherits an Excel file but doesn't know what is included in the file. The following
areas can cause performance or crashing issues:

Formulas referencing entire columns.

Array formulas referencing an uneven number of elements in the arguments.

 Hundreds, or perhaps thousands of hidden or 0 height and width object

Excessive styles caused by frequent copying and pasting between books

Excessive and invalid defined names

If these steps do not resolve your issue, continue to method 5.

Method 5: Check whether your file is being generated by a

third party

Sometimes Excel files are generated by a third-party application. In this case, the
files may be generated incorrectly, and some features may not work correctly when
you open the files in Excel. If this occurs, test the features in new files outside the
third-party application. If the features work correctly, you should make sure that the
third party is aware of the issue.

If your issue is not resolved after you test it outside the third-party application, go to
method 6.

Method 6: Perform a selective startup to determine whether

a program, process, or service conflicts with Excel

When you start Windows as usual, several applications and services start
automatically and then run in the background. These applications and services can
interfere with other software on your PC. Performing a selective startup (also known
as a "clean boot") can help you identify problems with conflicting applications. To
perform a selective startup, click one of the following links, depending on your
version of Windows, and then follow the steps in the article:

Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8: Run Selective Startup using System

Configuration
Windows Vista: Run Selective Startup using System Configuration
Windows XP: How to create and configure user accounts in Windows XP
Selective startup is used to help identify the offending process, service, or
application that conflicts with Excel.

If your issue is not resolved after you re-create the profile, go to method 7.

Method 7: Check whether your antivirus software is up to

date or is conflicting with Excel

Antivirus software can interfere with Excel, and cause performance issues.
Frequently updating your AV software can alleviate the issue.
How to check whether your antivirus software is up to date

To keep up with new viruses that are created, antivirus software vendors periodically
provide updates that you can download from the Internet. Download the latest
updates by visiting your antivirus software vendors website. For a list of antivirus
software vendors, go to the following Microsoft website:

Consumer security software providers

How to check whether antivirus software is conflicting with Excel

If your antivirus software includes integration with Excel, you may experience
performance issues. In this case, you can disable all Excel integration within the
antivirus software by creating exceptions for Excel files.

Important Changing your antivirus settings may make your PC vulnerable to viral,
fraudulent, or malicious attacks. We do not recommend that you try to change your
antivirus settings. Use this workaround at your own risk. You may have to contact
your antivirus software vendor to determine how to configure software to exclude
any integration with Excel.

If updating your antivirus software, and excluding it from integrating with Excel does
not resolve your issue, go to method 8. continue to the advanced troubleshooting
section.

Method 8: Verify or install the latest updates

You might have to set Windows Update to automatically download and install
recommended updates. Installing any important, recommended, and optional
updates can frequently correct problems by replacing out-of-date files and fixing
vulnerabilities. To install the latest Office updates, click the link specific to your
version of Windows and follow the steps in that article.

Operating system updates

Install update in Windows 10

Install Windows update in Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
Install Windows updates in Windows 7
Install Windows updates in Windows Vista
Install Windows updates in Windows XP

Office updates

For more information about the latest Office updates, see Office Updates.

If your issue is not resolved after you install the latest Windows and Office updates,
continue to the advanced troubleshooting in the More Information section.
 More Information

Advanced troubleshooting

If the methods that were mentioned earlier did not resolve your issue, the issue
could be either file specific or environmental. The following section describes how to
troubleshoot additional issue that can cause Excel to hang or to crash.

Environmental factors

Environmental factors are just as important as file contents and add-ins when you
are troubleshooting crashes. You can help us determine the cause of your issue by
taking the following actions:

Follow basic troubleshooting steps.

Test files in the cleanest possible environment.

The following sections describe some areas that are worth investigating.

Where the file is stored

Moving the file locally will help determine whether there is something wrong with
the file or with where the file is saved. Several issues can arise when you save an
Excel file over a network or to a web server. It is a good idea to save the file locally.
This should be done in the following scenarios:

Redirected "My Documents" folder to server location

Offline files

Opening files from Webfolder or SharePoint

Remote Desktop/Citrix

Network appliances

Virtualized environment. For more information about Microsoft software that is

running in a virtualized environment, click the following article number to view the
article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
897615 Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware
virtualization software
Memory
Excel files can grow fairly large when you start adding lots of formatting and shapes.
Make sure that your system has enough RAM to run the application. For system
requirements of the Microsoft Office suites, go to the following Microsoft websites:
System requirements for Office 2016
System requirements for Office 2013

System requirements for Office 2010

System requirements for Excel 2007

Office 2010 introduced native 64-bit versions of Office products to take advantage
of this larger capacity. For example, this additional capacity is needed only by those
Microsoft Excel users who require Excel spreadsheets to access more than 2
gigabytes (GB) of addressable memory. To read more about Excel and 64-bit
editions of Office, go to the following Microsoft websites:

64-bit editions of Office 2013

Understanding 64-bit Office

Printers and video drivers
When Excel is started, it examines the default printer and video drivers that will
display the Excel workbooks. Excel is printer-intensive. Therefore, it will run even
slower when Excel files are saved in Page Break Preview view. Testing the file by
using different printers such as the Microsoft XPS Document Writer printer driver or
the VGA video driver will determine whether the problem is with a specific printer or
video driver.

If you still have hanging or crashing issues in Excel after you work through the
resolution methods that are mentioned here, you should contact Microsoft Support
for guided troubleshooting.
Properties
Article ID: 2758592 - Last Review: Mar 31, 2017 - Revision: 5

Applies to
Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Excel 2010, Microsoft Excel 2013, Excel 2016