Excel 2010 crash when changing Number Format on chart

We (I and some clients) have been experiencing a very, very annoying problem with Excel 2010 professional plus (on Windows 7). Whenever we try to change the number Format of any item on any chart (e.g. axis or datalabels), Excel gets very slow and even crashes after two or three clics on various formats.

I insist, we have this issue on any chart, whatever the type, size or content (I can crash my Excel with a simple bar chart with one serie of three points).

I tried to reproduce this issue on a blank virtual machine with only office 2010 installed but, unsurprisingly, everything works fine.

Seeing that I tried the following :

- Remove all Addins

- Reinstall Office 2010

But Excel still crashes.

 

Any Ideas?

March 18th, 2011 3:14pm

Julien,

My quad core system doesn't have this problem but less equiped colleagues of mine, with 3-4 year old duo laptops, are complaining about this all the time. It must be a known problem?

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March 18th, 2011 11:38pm

Hi,

 

Here are some options to try....

Running Microsoft Office Diagnostics within Excel

•Click the Microsoft Office button

•Click on the Excel Options button to bring up the Excel Options dialog box

•Click on the Resources button in the left hand pane

•Click on the Diagnose button in the right hand pane

•Click Continue

•Click Run Diagnostics

Also please check this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942382

Hope it does help.

 

Regards

 

March 22nd, 2011 2:08am

Thanks Hanko Panko. I feel less alone!

Harry, correct me if I'm wrong but what you propose are Excel 2007 fixes. In 2010 there is not diagnostic tool? Or is There?

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March 23rd, 2011 2:53pm

You are not alone at all Julien.

I was having the same issue with pie graphs.

Everything had been fine for at least a couple of years with the one workbook (initially used in 2007). then recently in 2010 when trying to save in compatibility mode excel crashed.

It would save ok in .xlsx and .xlsm but not .xls

I deleted all graphs in the workbook then it saved ok.

Now unfortunately it seems that the issue has been retained in the background somewhere (no idea where or how) but it has started crashing again in the same workbook.

Have you found a fix? workaround? any solution or recommendation?

 

P.s. I cannot find the diagnostics tool in 2010 either.

May 1st, 2011 8:13pm

I haven't found anything yet.

I'll  keep looking and post any findings here.

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May 2nd, 2011 7:10am

What is the "microsoft office button?"
May 3rd, 2011 2:29pm

Hi,

Start the computer in clean boot and check if it works fine.

Refer the article below to start the computer in clean boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Note: Ensure to restart the computer in normal mode by following Step 7, after completing the troubleshooting steps.

Sorry the Microsoft Office button is in the 2007 version

Sincerely

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May 4th, 2011 1:54am

Thanks Harry for your advice.

But I still have the issue with a clean boot.

 

May 4th, 2011 7:37am

Hi, I was frustrated by this problem for many days and then I find the solution that: 

Go to "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features" and uninstall "Web  authoring component " if any.

Hope this will help.

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May 28th, 2011 9:07am

Thanks a lot Peanut!

This really helped.

May 30th, 2011 12:21pm

Got the same issue.

The problem with formatting Excel diagrams only occurs on computers, where we installed Office 14 AND Visual Studio 2010 with  VS 2010 Tools for Office. (On computers with Office 14 and without VS2010, everything works fine).

The directory c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\ of those computers contain suspicious entries as follows:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\     (-->2003)

and

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\        (-->2007)

--containing c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\Visual Studio Tools for Office 9.0\     (O F F I C E  9.0, really!)

(and c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ - correct, of course-)

Office forums blamed unclean rests of early Office installations (2007, 2003,…) to be the reason of the problem and there are tools like “Microsoft Fix it Tool 50154” to fix the issue with office 2007 remainders, e.g.

Newly installed win7, we did not upgrade Office 2010 from earlier versions. So the “remainders” derive from Visual Studio 2010 installation. Even though guessing the issue is very similar, we don’t know, what will go wrong with VS developments, if we applied the “office fixits” (is there a fixit for Office 9.0?).

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January 13th, 2012 3:55pm

I was unable to change a chart title; Excel would highlight the title, then crash.  HP9262 desktop with Core I5.  Excel 2007, Windows 7, both updated. 

I had 2 windows open for the workbook, and I was editing in the second window (ie workbook:2).  Copied/pasted a chart. Changed the chart source data with no problem. Clicked on the chart title to change it, and Excel crashed.  The problem remained after restarting Excel and even after rebooting.

Then I closed the first window, leaving the former second window as the sole remaining window.  Now I can edit the chart title without any problem.

 

  • Proposed as answer by leeenda73 Tuesday, March 04, 2014 4:32 PM
February 3rd, 2012 10:03pm

Thanks, Peanut.Z, your solution was perfect for my case!
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August 8th, 2012 11:30pm

Amazing, Peanut! I was looking for a solution to this problem for weeks! How could you figure that one out? Thank you a thousand times!
August 9th, 2012 11:22am

I've had problems with freezing excel when editing chart number format. I had installed microsoft power point viewer 2003 and microsoft sharepoint 2007. After uninstalling these two the freezing is all gone (did a registry cleaning also). I don't know which of the mentioned app that i've uninstalled was the problem but hope that my reply helps.

ps: i didn't uninstalled office but i've removed all addins (safe mode) before uninstalling any of the app mentioned. Still the crash remained.

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April 28th, 2013 8:03pm

This happens to me every few months, and I keep forgetting why. A quick google search brought me here and reminded me...

It is definitely because I have 2 windows open of the same worksheet... close one and the problem goes away.

Thanks :)

March 4th, 2014 4:34pm

I didn't have the "Web  authoring component" installed, but still the same issues.

After removing the "Microsoft office 2007 compatibility pack", the issue got resolved.

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July 8th, 2014 9:41am

I finally cracked it!  Just turn calculations to Manual from Automatic.  This has been giving me a headache for a week now as a particular report needs 19000 numbers converting from text.  Tried three times with Calcs on and three times with off.  On = 3 crashes / Off = completed in seconds. BOOM

Thank you to the gods of Excel and may Bill bless us all

August 19th, 2015 4:50am

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