# Excel 2010 ProblemsI have been getting the following errors in Excel 2010 for about 3



## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

I have been getting the following errors in Excel 2010 for about 3 months and they are getting more frequent (I have Win 7 Pro):

(1) Errors were detected while saving 'C:\Users\username\Documents\filename.xlsx'. 
Microsoft Excel may be able to save the file by removing or repairing some 
features. To make the repairs in a new file, click Continue. To cancel saving the 
file, click Cancel. 
(2) Cannot open the Clipboard. 
(3) An unexpected error has occurred. AutoRecover has been disabled for this session of Excel.
(4) Excel has stopped working.
(5) Freezes on print preview.

I have done the following:
- Tried Excel in safe mode.
- Uninstalled and Reinstalled Office 2010.
- Disabled all add-ins.
- Done an exhaustive search on the internet only to find that other people have one or more of these errors, but no solutions.
- Other Office 2010 apps work ok.

Nothing has worked. Im barely able to get anything done! Please help, Im dying here!


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

I don't have a solution, but you are not alone. Your forum post describes exactly the kind of problems I have had with Excel ever since I installed Office 2010. 

Sometimes a small change (changing the color of the font in one cell) will make it impossible to save a spreadsheet.
Sometimes I can open a spreadsheet from the Start menu, but not from an open Excel session.
Sometimes the clipboard cannot be opened
Etc.
I wish I knew what to try...


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks for replying, Mike. I'm at my wit's end. I also tried reinstalling my HP printer driver to no avail. These problems started to occur with me about Aug. 2010, I think. I haven't installed anything. It may have something to do with a Windows or Office update, just guessing. I may have to call Microsoft ($) to get "maybe" an answer. If you hear of anything , please let me know...and I'll do the same.

I'll add your list to mine since I have experienced them, too. One more: When doing a "save as" Excel freezes.


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## Keebellah (Mar 27, 2008)

Have you checked the XLSSTART folder in the Program Files folder?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12

Maybe there is a file there, any file there will be exceuted when opening Excel.
You could even have saved a recorded macro in your Personal.xlsx

This file is also stored in the XLSTART folder


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

I have Office 2010 64-bit. In Program Files/Microsoft Office/ Office14_, _the XLSSTART folder is empty. I appreciate your thoughts though!


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## Keebellah (Mar 27, 2008)

Okay, but I do think that there is an equivalent of Personal.xlst stored somewhere (if it's present).
You could search for it, when you open a new sheet and open the VBA editor you should see it in the list if it's present.
If not, then there is something else, and that really is a problem.
Microsoft builds real big haystacks !


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

I did a search for Personal.xlst. It doesn't exist. I had no such problems with Office 2007, or when I first installed Office 2010. Thanks for replying.


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

I searched my computer, and found no folder named "xlsstart" and no files with the extension ".xlst" Any other ideas?

Thanks,
MikeYew


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

The folder is hidden. And your Personal file is probably going to be a .xlsb extension, not a template extension (xlst). What is the hardware you're running this on? I have 2010 x64 and haven't had any of these problems, and can't duplicate any of them.

Can you show the clipboard with Alt + E, B?

And you're up to date on all of your Windows updates?


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Zack, I see 3 .xlsb files, one of which will open. It's an old unsaved file that will open. The other 2 are $IWKRFIP.xlsb and $RWKRFIP.xlsb, what ever they are, and when I try to open them, they display the "properties" screen. There is no personal.xlsb file. "Can you show the clipboard with Alt + E, B?"...yes.

System Specs:

Dell XPS410 Intel Core 2 6600 @ 2.40 MHz
4 Gb ram
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro x64
Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus x64

Windows and Office are up to date.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

Those may be partial files. I don't trust the names though. I would hold select the file, hold the Shift key and double click the file. That will open the file without firing any auto open macros. Do the files open normally that way?

Did you check the default files list? Click your _Windows _button and select the _Default Programs _link on the right. Click the _Associate a file type or protocol with a program _button. Once the list populates, scroll down until you see the Excel extensions, i.e. xlsx, xlsb, xlsm, etc. Make sure they're associated with Microsoft Excel.


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

I searched and didn't find any files with that extension.

I am running an HP Pavilion desktop, 2.67 Gighertz Intel Core 2 Duo. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. The trouble started when I installed Office 2010 - under Office 2007 no such problems.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

Take a look at the picture file I uploaded. You're saying you do not see the highlighted file extension at all?


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

$IWKRFIP.xlsb and $RWKRFIP.xlsb will not open even with the shift key. It appears they might be backup files, but won't open. I took a look at them in a hex editor and they are empty. All file associations are correct.


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Zack:

I find those file types in the list you highlighted, and I have quite a few .xlsx files - what I don't find are any .xlsb files. None that I have found.

Mike


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

@Rich: They're probably partial backups. I'd just delete them. Unless they're your files you created.

@Mike: And the keyboard shortcut? And why keep both versions? I do know people who have done that, and happily keep them running side by side, I'm just curious as to your reasoning.


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Zack:

(1) Inside Excel, when I use Alt E, B, a sub-window opens at the left with the contents of the clipboard identified on it. Is that what you expect?

(2) I am runnning only Office 2010 - I meant to say that I didn't have any similar problems with the previously installed version. I will say that many (not sure if it's all) of my problems are with spreadsheets that were originally built long ago - with trivial things like my family finances on them. It seems there are fewer problems with newly built spreadsheets. But, just opening a new Excel file and copying the old worksheets to it won't solve the problems - that's one of the first things I tried.

Thanks,
Mike


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

@ Mike, in my case problems occur with both old and brand new spreadsheets.


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Rich:

How about size? My old files, full of historical data, get pretty big. Those are the ones I have had the most trouble with. 

I opened a new file today, did a one-worksheet table comparing the nutrition labels of some foods, saved it - no problems. The new file is less than 20 kilobytes. One that is giving me fits the last couple of days (can't even change the color of the font in one cell) is about 320 kb. Some of the bigger ones are about a Megabyte.

Mike


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Mike,

My files average about 50kb, with one reaching 5.5mb. Interesting enough the 5.5mb one has no color and I don't have any problem with it. All others have several colored fonts and fills. You might be onto something, but what? Rich


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## Keebellah (Mar 27, 2008)

Information found on xlsb files (Google):

The .xlsb files are used in Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 for Workbooks, spreadsheet document files saved in the binary format (BIFF12), instead of the new Open XML XLSX Excel workbook file format. The basic purpose of both files is the same, however the .xlsb files are a little larger and operate more efficiently in Microsoft Excel.

http://www.file-extensions.org/xlsb-file-extension


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

xlsb files are nice because they can contain macros. xlsx files cannot. xlsm files can, but people have this stigma that any file containing macros is virus-laden, and I have heard plenty of bad views on xlsm files, of course I completely disagree with that though. Maybe it's just me. One thing about the new file formats is they are much more versatile, especially when it comes to its structuring, thus overall sizing. They are actually ISO compliant and have their own standard - actually a fairly big deal. The new sizes are generally and usually many times smaller than their predecessor (2003 and before).

Large files can be the sign of something corrupt or out of whack too. One way to check if a file is corrupt is to create a new file, copy the cells from worksheet to worksheet, not copying worksheets, then save and close.

@Mike: Yes, the clipboard should appear. I was directing that at Rich, who said he couldn't open the clipboard. He said he couldn't show the clipboard, so I wanted to make sure it would show with the keyboard shortcut. 

@Rich: So can you not show the clipboard by clicking the dialog box launcher? What printers do you have? Sometimes printer drivers have thrown Office into a tizzy. There's gotta be something on your machine we're not looking at which is causing this behavior. I have almost the exact same hardware/software setup, and it runs beautiful for me. What add-ins do you have installed, both regular and COM? Anything loading at startup? What happened August 2010? Another thing you might try: take one of your problemmatic files and open it on another machine with Excel 2007 or above. Check for similar results. I'm thinking it's the application and not the files, but not sure, and we should narrow it down. And you did do a complete install, right? Did this replace a previous version, and if so, did you delete the previous version completely?


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Zack,

"So can you not show the clipboard by clicking the dialog box launcher?"...I can.
"What printers do you have?"...I have a HP C6180 Photosmart All-in-one. I uninstalled the driver, downloaded and installed the latest driver from HP. No help.
"What add-ins do you have installed, both regular and COM?"...I have no Excel or COM add-ins installed.
"Anything loading at startup? "...Nothing at start-up.
"What happened August 2010?"...Good question. I don't recall doing any new installs, but repeated re-installs of Firefox (errors involving invalid urls, another unresolved issue). The event log dutifully recorded Excel errors; I noticed these errors started about Aug 2010.
"Another thing you might try: take one of your problemmatic files and open it on another machine with Excel 2007 or above."...The problems are intermittent, but I will try. You do bring to mind another fact: after I get a failure like "cannot open clipboard", it remains a solid failure; however,if I let it sit for a few hours, sometimes it goes away.
"And you did do a complete install, right? Did this replace a previous version, and if so, did you delete the previous version completely?"...Yes I completely removed 2007 using "Your Un-Installer!", then installed 2010. I also have completely uninstalled 2010 and reinstalled.

I appreciate your help.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

There is also the possiblity of either a virus or corrupt files (which could also have been from a virus). Do you have a good virus scanner installed? Do you have any of them running? If so, which one's? There also could be a conflict there. Try disabling any if installed and checking for the same behavior.

Not sure what else to do. This is all very strange behavior. When exactly do you see the clipboard error? Is it when performing an action with the clipboard?


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

This problem is puzzling because it is intermittent, and it's difficult to spot what triggers it.

This morning I opened a file with some investment data. It is 320 kilobytes, 14 worksheets. The first page is a big table, some of the others are graphs, some are small tables with graphs on the page. I checked every page and saved the file. Then I went to one of the back pages and added to the table, calculating the rate of return (XIRR) for the most recent quarter. After every few steps I saved again.

After several updates, I needed to change the color of the font in one area of the worksheet. It apparently did that, but when I tried to save again, I got an error message, "Errors were detected while saving [file name]. Microsoft Excel may be able to save the file by removing or repairing some features. To make repairs in a new file, click Continue. To cancel saving the file, click Cancel." I cancelled, because it just freezes if you try Continue.

Then I tried to close the file, tried to save on closing, and got the unhelpful error message "File not Saved."

I re-opened my last saved version and tried again to make that area of the worksheet all the same font color - any color, even black - and cannot. It just seems to discombobulate the program if I try to do that. Sometimes, at random - other times it works OK, and I don't see the difference.

By the way, Undoing the step that caused the problem doesn't Undo the problem. Once the program decides that you have errors, it will not save any more, and often freezes if you try to do anything.


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

@Zack: I have Norton Internet Security running, and manually run Malwarebytes' Anti Malware, neither showing any viruses or malware. I disabled Norton and got the same errors. I see the clipboard error when right clicking on a cell or block of cells and choosing copy.

@ Mike: I have experienced the same sort of error. I downloaded Office 2010 again from Microsoft (where I bought it) and uninstalled the current Ofc 2010 and installed the newly downloaded Ofc 2010. Do you have x64 or x386 Ofc 2010?

I'll let you guys know it goes after the new download installation. If this doesn't work, I may reinstall Win 7 from scratch, or go with another Office Suite. I'm getting very tired of this nonsense.

Regards, Rich


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Rich:

I have Office 2010 Version 14.0.4760.1000 (32-bit)

Mike


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Gentlemen:

What are my options for getting reasonable help from Microsoft? I know that they try to steer you to previously solved problems. Can one get into a chat mode with Microsoft? What if I get desperate enough to pay by the hour for help over the phone? Has anyone done that lately? I haven't done that drill in about 10 years, and don't know how it works these days.

All experience and opinions welcome.

Mike


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Zack Barresse said:


> There is also the possiblity of either a virus or corrupt files (which could also have been from a virus). Do you have a good virus scanner installed? Do you have any of them running? If so, which one's? There also could be a conflict there. Try disabling any if installed and checking for the same behavior.
> 
> Not sure what else to do. This is all very strange behavior. When exactly do you see the clipboard error? Is it when performing an action with the clipboard?


REPLY:

I am running Norton 360, up to date, and it says the computer is virus-free.

Mike


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

_Scenario: ( I can't turn off italics here!)

I open a wookbook (WB1) with 3 sheets. Chose the 2nd sheet, right clicked on its tab, chose move or copy, selected to move to a new wookbook (WB2). Worked ok. I then went to the new wookbook (WB2) and right clicked on the tab of the just moved sheet, chose to move or copy, selected the original wookbook (WB1), clicked ok and it hung solid every time. I had to either shut the PC off or kill the Excel process in task manager.

Mike: You might want to try this.

I am unsure what to do next.
_


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Mike, check here for Microsoft Support Options.


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Rich1039 said:


> _Scenario: ( I can't turn off italics here!)_
> 
> _I open a wookbook (WB1) with 3 sheets. Chose the 2nd sheet, right clicked on its tab, chose move or copy, selected to move to a new wookbook (WB2). Worked ok. I then went to the new wookbook (WB2) and right clicked on the tab of the just moved sheet, chose to move or copy, selected the original wookbook (WB1), clicked ok and it hung solid every time. I had to either shut the PC off or kill the Excel process in task manager._
> 
> ...


Rich:

I tried that, and did not reproduce the error - I did it twice, and it worked just fine. Very strange, eh?

Mike


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Don't know why, but Excel is not failing now. However, I am reluctant to use it for anything critical.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

I'm still thinking it has to be some outside influence, not necessarily with the app itself (Excel). I honestly don't know what else to check. Do you have your network set as a trusted location perhaps? Maybe there's some kind of problem with it and it is requerying your entire network every time you open Excel? So odd...


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Zack, I agree it must be an outside influence. But to find out what is very difficult. My network is a home network, which according to the description, is a trusted network. I am unsure what you mean by requerying the network. Thanks for replying.


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## Rajeshd1 (Mar 10, 2010)

ok one simple step go on control panel and change the default printer to microsoft xps printer and check if dat helps also go onto services.msc in start run and stop the print spooler service and check if dat works ...if it does contact the printer manufacturer to update the printer drivers


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Rajeshd1, I tried that and it didn't work.....


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## Rajeshd1 (Mar 10, 2010)

try to manually uninstall and reinstall the excel first by first making excel unavailble by going to control panel and change the installed program then ... delete the registry keys of excel from HKLM and HKCU under registry ... and then make excel available and check else manually uninstall and reinstall the entire office by following microsoft kb290301


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

I tried as you suggested a while back, and no change. 

I finally ended up doing a serious clean-up of my system...files; registry including a compression; program fragments (via jv16 Tools)...there was a lot, both files and registry entries; uninstalling (using Your Uninstaller!) programs I didn't use much if at all; uninstalled and reinstalled Norton Internet security; and a few other things I can't think of right now. Somewhere during this process Excel started to work correctly again, but I don't know at what point because the Excel errors were intermittent and it would have taken forever if I tested it along the way.

Its been over a week now without a single error.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

Great news, but still a little confusing. Glad it's working better though. Wish we could've narrowed it down a little more though.


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Zack: Couldn't agree more.

Mike: Are you still getting failures?


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Zack:

Yes, I am still having similar problems. Can open some .xlsx files from the Documents directory, but not from Excel itself. Cannot change font colors in some files. I have kind of learned to work around the functions that do not work correctly, but it's a pain in the neck. Sometimes lower than that.

Mike


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## Rich1039 (Oct 15, 2010)

Mike, did you try what I did? (Super computer clean) 

Rich


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## MikeYew (Oct 16, 2010)

Rich:

I have done some cleanup, but not the Super job that you did.

Mike


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