# Excel Not Enough System Resources to Display Completely



## njpacheco (Nov 14, 2007)

Help! I have a problem with Microsoft Excel 2003. Everytime I open Excel (any spreadsheet or even a new spreadsheet) i get an error message about "not enough system resources to display completely" I have a Thinkpad T60 running Microsoft XP. I have installed 4G of RAM but only 3G are recognized by system. I have a 320G drive of which only 96G is used. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing. I ran CCcleaner. The error message pops up whenever i open any spreadsheet and even if I click ok it reappears when i move from cell to cell or do anything in excel making it virtually unusable. Any help to fix this would be great.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

theres an interesting reply to that problem with a number of suggestions
to do with 
1) Add-ins, 
2) Excel Start
3) toolbar
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2308531.php
its quite OLD


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## njpacheco (Nov 14, 2007)

:-( I tried everything in this old thread. Nothing worked. help!!!!! (please!!!!!)


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

njpacheco said:


> I have installed 4G of RAM but only 3G are recognized by system.


I'm very curious about this statement here. Is the memory compatible? I would definitely check into it. A great online resource is http://www.crucial.com.


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## njpacheco (Nov 14, 2007)

Hi 
This is what the scan says:
Maximum Memory Capacity: 3072MB
Currently Installed Memory: 4GB
Available Memory Slots: 0
Total Memory Slots: 2
Dual Channel Support: No 
CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T1300 @ 1.66GHz Model 14, Stepping 8
CPU Speed: 1662 MHz 
Although it is physically possible to install more memory, the system will only recognize the maximum listed. Installing more memory may cause major problems. Consult the system's manufacturer for more information.


I went up to the 4G about 2 months ago and XL started giving me this problem about a month ago so it's not entirely coincident with the problem. Tomorrow I will try and take out 2G of memory and run with just the 2G and see if there is any change.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

> I have installed 4G of RAM but only 3G are recognized by system.


 Thats quite normal with a 32Bit windows system 
the bios should see the 4GB however, but windows may only report between 3 to 3.5gb

Have you checked Bios ?

Try running http://www.memtest.org/ for a while - see if anything happens with that memory


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## DerekC (Jan 10, 2005)

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program? Or just running the repair option from the control panel?


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## njpacheco (Nov 14, 2007)

yes i completely uninstalled and reinstalled.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

Uninstalling/installing really won't solve this problem. I'm willing to bet the memory may not be compatible with your system, thus Excel would not be able to utilize it effectively and show as a memory shortage. Everything points hardware here, not software.

Do you have any add-ins installed? I remember hearing of a similar bug with the PDFMaker.xla add-in. Here are some related support pages...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/183503
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313275
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812133

HTH


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## njpacheco (Nov 14, 2007)

Hi, sorry, had to go out of town for awhile and was not able to reply. I don;t have any addins. One other thing that I tried recently is that i booted the computer in safe mode. I do NOT get the error when running excel this way. But if I start Excel in safe mode (excel.exe /s) i do still get the error. not sure if this gives you any clue. Is there any way for me to independently determine if the memory is incompatible as you suggest?


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## njpacheco (Nov 14, 2007)

Oh by the way someone suggested I run www.memtest.org but I could not really understand how to run it...can you give some more instructions?


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

Interesting that it starts OK in safe mode - maybe one of the startup programs is conflicting in some way

Try doing a clean boot
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

Also
download ultmate boot cd for windows
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

On the site - left hand menu tells you how to build

download the iso
you should be able to right click on the ISO and create a CD
this CD is bootable 
so once created - put it in the PC, as you boot you may see - push any key to boot from CD.... (if not, then you will need to go into bios and set CD as the first boot option)

go to the memtest and run

OR
From that memtest site
Download (Pre-built & ISOs) 
and create a bootable CD
and run

As you still have to create a bootable CD UBCD has a lot more tools on including the memtest and my by useful in future

Unless you have a Floppy Drive and floppys as memtest can be run from floppys


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