Autocalculate and forced calc do not work in Excel 2003

[Skychick]

I am a systems analyst and one of my users has a random problem with spreadsheets where she enters a formula and it does not calculate. She is using Excel 2003. Here are the things I have already checked out:

Autocalculate IS turned on
The numbers ARE really numbers and not text
Editing the numbers and formulas and re-entering them did not help
The formulas are entered correctly and are simple such as sum and multiplication
There are no other workbooks or spreasheets open
Hand entered numbers into different cells with the same result
Tried copying and doing a paste special as values with same result
Tried forcing a calc with F9 with no results
The bottom of the screen says calculate so it knows that it needs to calculate, just won't do it.
Very small spreadsheet so no maximum number of formulas hit
Network support re-loaded Excel onto the machine twice already
Saving the spreadsheet and re-opening it usually solves the problem.
When spreasheet is sent to someone else, it opens fine with calculations completed.

If anyone knows of a hotfix that might exist for this issue or what could be causing it please let me know. Thanks

 

[crook_101]

HI,

Couple of things from memory for 2003...

Change the cell format to General, F2, delete formula then reenter it, not through copy & paste

Excel Preferences>>View>>uncheck view formulas in window options

Any VBA??

Are they standard formula or UDFs??

Chers,
Ian

 

[Skychick]

Thanks Ian

The format was set to numeric. I will have to wait for the user to generate another bad spreadsheet for me to try changing the format to general (and see what happens) as I am unable to recreate her issue on my computer.

I did try manually typing in the formulas from scratch (not cut and paste) even in different cells to no avail.

The formulas are simple fomulas such as =G12*D12 and =SUM(H10:H713). No UDFs

I looked at the preferences for View and view formulas in window options was not checked.

No VBA or macros at all in the spreadsheet.

Any other ideas?
Thanks

 

[crook_101]

2007

Will give the memory banks a trawl and ask some of the guys at work using 2003

Cheers,
Ian

 

[crook_101]

Hi again,

Memory playing tricks again, slect cell, hit F2 and then enter should force calc through, one last thing - there is no other sheet open wwith calc set to manual??

Ian

 

[Skychick]

Wish we could go to 2007 but it doesn't work with the version if Peoplesoft that we are using.

Was unable to force a calc no matter how hard I tried. F2 (edit) of formulas had no effect. Pressing F9 had no effect.

No other workbooks or worksheets open at all on the sample I tested with today.

This happens on both new sheets this user creates, worksheets she copies inside a workbook, and sheets generated from Peoplesoft data. Oddly enough, she can have a workbook open with a sheet that works and duplicate it to a new sheet within the same workbook and the new sheet doesn't calc. The sample I looked at today however was just one single sheet in a workbook and it had the same issue.

Again, it is very random and hard to reproduce and once the sheet is saved, the problem is normally gone.

 

[crook_101]

If you find an answer, please post back as it would be nice to know - we use PS at work and haven't had any issues with 2007 - justification for upgrades??

I will check with the guys next week.

Ian

 

[Skychick]

Thanks Ian,

We are currently in plans to upgrade Peoplesoft but government moves slowly.

Hopefully someone else will have some ideas on this. I have searched google and Microsoft.com until my eyes were red. I am hoping perhaps this users computer is missing a service pack for Office or something but can't check on that until Monday.

Let me know if you find out anything and anyone else with ideas, please chime in.
Thanks,
Sharon

 

[crook_101]

If SP is not missing, try deinstalling & reinstalling 2003.....

Have a great weekend

Ian

 

[jeffreybrown]

Just a thought...

Have you tried Find and Replace to see what happens

Find what: =
Replace with: =