"Cannot empty the clipboard!" message error doing my head in...

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medexcel

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I recently got a new PC running Windows 7, 64 bit edition. Installed Office 2003 Pro without any problems. But every time I drag a cell somewhere on the worksheet, I get an annoying error message"Cannot empty the clipboard!" that has to be clicked to proceed with the drag. It only happens when dragging, not when copy/pasting.

This has never happened before on any machine running Office 2003 that I've experienced, and is really annoying as it slows me down a lot. All the fixes I've found from Googling talk about killing the process rdpclip.exe (not running on my machine), not using GetRight Monitor version 3.2 (I'm not), clearing the Monitor Clipboard (empty), clearing the clipboard (no effect) or using a hotfix that's only for users of Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based server (I'm not using that, I'm on Win 7).

Please help, it's driving me mad! What on earth is happening?
 

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Thanks Andy, done all that (amongst those that are relevant, though there doesn't seem to be a clipbrd.exe or rdpclip.exe in 64 bit Win 7).

There is one other thing I wonder about. Thinking about it, the error used to happen occasionally on my old 32 bit XP PC if I had a certain program running (Freelang) which is a freeware dictionary (I write spreadsheets in French and English so occasionally need a dictionary available). I didn't normally have it open when using Excel so the problem didn't arise, and now in Win7 I still don't often open it. But is it possible it could be running in the background and causing problems? If so, how would I know, and how would I fix it, given that it's a useful program to have?
 
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You should be able to check if it's running just by going thru Task Manager - you can establish if it is starting up when you boot up by going Start>Run>msconfig and checking if it's listed in the Start Up menu.
 
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Um oh dear. Yes, the dict.exe that's a part of the Freelang dictionary was listed under Task manager, so I closed it down. Problem persists. Andrew, how do you find out which applications monitor the clipboard?

In fact I've gone through EVERY running program listed in Task Manager and only one of them appears to be connected to Excel - namely Outlook. Indeed, closing Outlook has (at least temporarily) stopped the error message from popping up.

So that reduces me to asking - is it really not possible to run Excel with Outlook open on my PC without this stupid error message repeatedly popping up? I've never had a problem running both open simultaneously on any other machine and I'd have thought a 64 bit Win 7 is the creme de la creme of operating systems. And if Outlook isn't responsible, then what is causing this problem, and how do I overcome it? I have not seen one helpful suggestion on the www that applies to my operating system.
 
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Update 1 - the problem goes away if I close Outlook.

Update 2 - tried closing Outlook and the problem persists. Just closed Word and the problem has gone away again (temporarily....)

Why, oh why?

Task Manager is not listing the rdpclip exe or whatever the thing was called that some people claimed to be the clipboard manager causing the problem, so nothing there to close. I think if this persists I'm gonna have to reinstall Office! Any other suggestions?
 
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The only way I've been able to cope with this is to keep the clipboard open and empty it it when I see it becoming full. Annoying but not as annoying as having to close all my workbooks down and reopen them.
 
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Keeping the clipboard open doesn't work for me - even when it's open and the clipboard is empty, I still get the annoying message and have to click on it to go away every time I drag a cell somewhere.

Any other suggestions, or is it time to uninstall and reinstall Office?
 
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Would you happen to be running Skype?? I just found this, and it is the ONLY thing of the 9,342+ other solutions (none from MS, of course, the ba............) that WORKED for me!!! I keep IE open most all day to get to my datawarehouse, so no wonder it was a totally random issue for me.

I swear, if I had known about this just a few months earlier..... (my head might not be as caved in...)

Hope this helps??

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...indows-7/ab6b83f2-e01d-4f14-b53e-45da0a142aec
rjacobs7 February 28, 2011

Cannot clear clipboard error - Windows 7, Excel 2010 -
This error occurs nearly every time a drag and drop of cell contents is attempted. I've had this same error over the past 10 years on older computers and older versions of Windows and Office. It has now reoccurred with a new laptop running Windows 7 64 bit and Office 2010. The issue can be replicated only if a browser - IE or Firefox - is open at the same time that Excel is open. Having Word and/or Outlook open at the same time will not cause the problem to occur unless a browser is also open. This error is extremely irritating and no solutions from Microsoft or other posts on this issue resolve it.

I have a solution - at least for me! Delete the Skype add-in in IE and Firefox and the "cannot clear clipboard" error after a drag and drop goes away when IE and/or Firefox are running. Apparently some sort of memory-management issue with Skype, Office and the browsers.

​
 
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