Fixing Startup problems

Unfortunately, many Excel users sometimes start experiencing startup problems with their Excel: File not found errors, compile errors, GPF's, Excel refusing to load, etcetera.

This is a list of things-to-try when Excel exhibits (startup) problems.

1. Errors when Excel starts

1.1. Try opening Excel without any addins or hidden workbooks

Use the Automation switch to start Excel without loading addins or workbooks from the XLSTART folder:

Click Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Automation

Quotes mandatory, Note you may have to change the path.

If your error disappears, either an add-in or a (hidden) workbook that is loaded upon Excel's start bothers you.

Locate the offending file using the following steps:

Check your Add-ins.

  1. Tools, Add-ins
  2. note which are checked
  3. Uncheck all (but one)
  4. Restart XL
  5. If no error, check the next one and repeat from step 4

Got the error? uncheck the one you last checked.

Not an add-in? It will be a (hidden) workbook then.

Check workbooks that load at startup.

  1. Find your XLSTART folder (On WIndows XP it may be a path like this:
    C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
  2. Move all files out of it;
  3. Open them one by one (in Excel) and find the one with the error;
  4. Move the others back.

Repeat the above for the folder listed in Tools, Options, General, "Alternate Startup file location" or "At startup, open all Files in:" (The text depends on your version of Excel).

1.2. Open Excel in Safe mode

Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Safe

The safe switch ensures Excel starts without opening any addins or using your menu customisations. If this works, chances are that your toolbar customisation file is corrupt. Locate all files with extension .xlb and rename the extension(s) to something like .old
Now try and start Excel again.

2. Files will not open from explorer

2.1. Reregister Excel with Windows

Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Regserver

This generally fixes trouble with opening Excel files from the desktop or by (double)clicking them in Explorer.

2.2. Ignore other applications

Check in Tools, Options, General tab whether "Ignore other applications" is set. Uncheck it.

3. Trouble caused by antivirus software

NAV has shown to cause "Excel caused an invalid page
fault in module VBE6.DLL".
You might try disabling the Office plug in of NAV.

4. Trouble caused by corrupt temporary files

Try cleaning your TEMP folder:

In Windows 95/98 and ME

Delete all files in C:\Windows\Temp

In Windows NT/2000/XP

Find and Select C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\local settings\temp
and delete all files in there.
When a workbook contains controls from Excel's control toolbox temporary files are created in that folder. If such a temporary file is somehow corrupted it may prevent the workbook it belongs to from working normally and sometimes even causes Excel to crash.

Tip: Select Start, run and type %temp% and hit OK to directly open your temp folder.

5. Disabled files

Excel XP and 2003 have some new features, which may disable certain files when Excel thought them to be the cause of a crash.

If you have had a problem with opening a file, Excel may have labeled it as suspect.
In Excel, select Help | About Microsoft Excel.
Click the button near the bottom labeled "Disabled Items..."

If the offending file is listed, select it and click Enable. The file you just enabled may of course cause Excel to crash again, click here to find some pointers on how to open corrupt Excel files.

6. Links

Do you have one particular file that causes trouble? Check out this page.

This is what Microsoft has to say about startup problems:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;280504

And this about startup switches:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;211481

Here's what other people have to say about this subject:

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html

Fixing Corrupt Files

Sometimes one gets unlucky and a file is corrupted. This may result in the file not opening at all or in error messages during opening.

Here are some options to try and open a corrupt file or retrieve information out of it.

  1. Set calculation to manual( Open Excel, Choose Tools, Options from the menu, click the Calculation tab and choose Manual. Hit OK. Now try to open the file.
  2. Open the file, but disable macros (assuming you've set macro security to medium: Tools, Macro, security)
  3. As soon as you've clicked the disable macros button, press control-pageup or control-pagedown, thus changing sheets. Sometimes the corruption is inside a chart on a specific sheet, changing the sheet to another may prevent a crash, enabling you to copy the other sheets.

If that does not work, try creating a link to the file in an empty cell in a fresh workbook. Type this formula (adapt path, filename and sheetname):

='c:\my documents\[MyFileName.xls]Sheet1'!A1

and copy right and down. This at may get you the worksheets values.

if you don't know the sheet names, omit it by entering this:

='C:\PathToFile\[MyFileName.xls]'!A1

and press enter. If XL (2000) is able to extract them, it will prompt you for a sheet name.

Sometimes the Excel viewer, Word or even Internet explorer (v5) enables you to open the file and copy information out of it.

If the file is not protected, maybe you can open it with OpenOffice (www.Openoffice.org).

Also, Excel XP and 2003 can sometimes repair XL files with trouble. Simply choose File, open, select the problem file and instead of simply hitting the "Open" button, click to the right of it on its tiny down arrow to expose more options (see screenshot below)

Finally, sometimes a corrupt file that still can be opened, can be cured using this method (Excel 2000 or up):

  1. Open the file
  2. Save-as filetype Webpage
  3. Close the file
  4. Open the html file
  5. Save-as normal Excel workbook.

 

XL: How to Troubleshoot Startup Problems in Microsoft Excel
The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

There are several reasons why you may experience problems when you start Microsoft Excel. This article discusses how to troubleshoot the cause of the startup problem, and possible remedies to correct the problem. The article also contains links to other Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that discuss known startup problems in greater detail.

NOTE It is important to keep track of any new software installations or updates that you performed just before you experienced the problem, because these may be directly involved. This information is helpful if this article does not resolve your issue and you need to call Microsoft Technical Support.

MORE INFORMATION

When you start Microsoft Excel, you may experience problems for any of the following reasons:

If you receive an error message when you start Microsoft Excel, search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for the exact error message at the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/search

If you do not receive an error message, or if you cannot find specific information in the Microsoft Knowledge Base about the error message, use the following information to troubleshoot the Excel startup problem.

First, consider the scope of the problem. Does the problem occur when you start Excel by clicking a workbook file, or does it occur when you run Excel from the Start menu?

If the problem only occurs when you open an Excel file, please refer to the "Other Problems When Opening Excel Files" section later in this article. Otherwise, proceed to the next section.

Corrupted Shortcut to the Excel Program

If the problem only occurs when you start the Excel program, follow these steps:

    1. Click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
    2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type Excel.exe.
    3. In the Look in list, click My Computer, and then click Search Now.
    4. After the Excel.exe file is found, double-click the file to start Microsoft Excel.

      NOTE: The typical location of the Excel.exe file depends on what version you have installed.

      Excel 2000

    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office

If Excel starts as expected, the problem may have been due to a corrupted shortcut to the program. To resolve this problem, create a new shortcut to the Excel program that you can use to start Excel.

If Excel does not start as expected, follow these steps to run Excel in Safe mode.

Start Excel in Safe Mode

  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. Click Browse, and locate the folder where Microsoft Excel is installed, as specified earlier in this article.
  3. After you locate the Excel.exe file, click the file to select it, and then click Open.
  4. At the end of the path in the Open box, type a space and then type /s so that the entire line appears similar to the following:
    "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /s

If Excel starts as expected, please see the "Additional Troubleshooting" section later in this article for more information.

If Excel still does not start as expected, a conflict with another program may exist. Try to restart Windows in Safe mode, and then perform the previous steps again to run Excel in Safe mode.

For additional information about how to start Windows in Safe mode (clean boot), click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q156126 Troubleshooting Windows 95 Using Safe Mode

Q192926 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98

Q267288 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows Millennium Edition

Q266169 How to Troubleshoot Problems with Standby Mode, Hibernate Mode, and Shutting Down Your Computer in Windows 2000

Q281770 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Excel Does Not Start in Safe Mode and Windows Is in Safe Mode

If Excel does not start when you use the /s switch and Windows is running in Safe mode, remove Microsoft Office (or stand-alone Microsoft Excel) by using the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel. Please refer to your Windows documentation for more information.

This step may be necessary because when you run both Windows and Excel in Safe mode, Excel is in the most basic mode that is required to start the program. This means that no other programs or files are involved in the Excel startup process. Therefore, the problem may be due to a corrupted Office file that Excel uses to start. If you remove and then reinstall Office (or stand-alone Excel), it should resolve this problem.

For additional information about a related issue with incompatible Office 2000 files, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q217440 Error Messages Starting Office Programs with Outdated Oleaut32.dll File

If the article above does not help, or if restarting Windows in Safe mode resolves the Excel startup problem, please see the "Additional Troubleshooting" section in this article for more information.

Additional Troubleshooting

Excel Starts When You Use /s Switch

If Microsoft Excel starts as expected when you use the /s switch, "Safe Mode" appears in the Excel title bar. This indicates Microsoft Excel is running as if it were the first time after the initial installation.

Now that you have started Excel, use a process of elimination to step through the following areas that Excel bypasses in Safe mode, until the problem is corrected.

Excel Startup Folders

One of the more common reasons you may experience problems when you start Excel is that Excel is loading a problem file from one of its several different startup folders.

For additional information about Excel startup folders, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q288866 XL2002: How to Prevent Excel from Automatically Opening Files in the Startup Folder

Q240150 XL2000: How to Use Excel Startup Folders

Excel Toolbar File

Occasionally, the toolbar file for Excel can become corrupted. If this occurs, you may experience problems when you start Excel. In this situation, locate the toolbar file and rename it. After you rename the toolbar file, Excel rebuilds a new toolbar file the next time you start Excel.

For example, if your toolbar file name is JoeUser8.xlb, rename the file to JoeUser8.old. Then, start Excel, and notice that Excel creates a new JoeUser8.xlb file in the same location as the original toolbar file.

For additional information about the Excel toolbar file and how to identify it, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q291074 XL2002: Default Toolbars and Toolbar Buttons Seen Instead of Customizations

Q214284 XL2000: Default Toolbars and Toolbar Buttons Seen Instead of Customizations

For additional information about another toolbar problem when you start Excel, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q215366 XL2000: Page Fault Starting Excel with Page Break Menu Command

Excel.pip File

Excel remembers what menus and commands have been used and displays these most recently used menus first. Excel hides the unused commands in its expandable menus. Excel stores this usage data along with menu animation settings in a file named Excel.pip.

This file can become corrupted. If this occurs, you may experience problems when you start Excel. In this situation, locate the Excel.pip file and rename it. After you rename the file, Excel rebuilds a new .pip file the next time you start Excel. Use the Windows search feature to locate the Excel.pip file.

Excel Starts When Windows Is in Safe Mode

If the Excel startup problem no longer occurs when Windows is in Safe mode, some other program is causing the problem with the Excel startup process.

Use a process of elimination to determine exactly what program is causing the problem. If you are unsure of how to do this, contact your Windows vendor for more information about how to eliminate each individual program that loads on Windows startup.

For additional information about how to troubleshoot Windows startup, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q281965 How to Troubleshoot Using the Msconfig Utility with Windows 98

Q281995 How to Troubleshoot Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows Millennium Edition

Q281770 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Corrupted Add-ins Under the Tools Menu

On the Tools menu, click Add-Ins. Click to clear the check boxes for any add-ins that are selected, and then click OK.

Corruption in the Registry Keys

Remove the following registry keys.

Excel 2000

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0

Other Problems When Opening Excel Files

If Excel experiences problems only when you open specific Excel files, you must use a different approach to troubleshoot the issue. You may need to do anything from disabling macros to rebuilding the workbook.

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q179871 XL2000: Methods for Recovering Data from Damaged Workbooks

Q213951 XL2000: Files Corrupted on Save: How to Troubleshoot Source of Problem