unable to open file

[SuperMachoJediKnight]

Good Morning

I have an end user that can't open a 5 meg file.
The pertinents are
excel 2013, 32 bit, windows 10 64bit
it is a macro enabled sheet
came in email
the file has references to external data.
a very small cluster of users can't open it, but a large majority of user CAN. it's not clear what those other environments are, users were busy when i was troubleshooting.
when opened, it uses 150 meg ram, 34% cpu, and sits there for eternity. really, we've left it for 20+minutes and never opened.

here's the troubleshooting done
saved file out of outlook to work from
use open and repair-never completes, never opens.
repair office.
turn off protected mode, turn off macro protection, turn off automated calculation, disable external data sources. Turned off hardware acceleration
cleaned out XLSTART, deleted all xlbs, turned off dde, turned off extraneous add ons, turned off ALL add ons, /safe mode, /automation, logged in as a different user to the device; no change.

I mailed myself the file, and it opened just fine without any intervention on excel 2013 32bit with win7 64bit.
I turned on the INQUIRY add on, and it noted file corruption-did another open and repair, saved it, ran inquiry again-and it said it was still corrupted. let inquiry repair it, saved it, closed it, reopened-and it sat there for more than an hour looking up the used cells. the data in this one sheet goes out to 4684-BR. there are only 4999 rows.

As a matter of avoiding boilerplate suggestions, here's what we absolutely cannot do in this corporate environment:

We can't "update to the latest xxx" and hope. this company has strict updating policies and does *not* deploy something that is untested, and they are slow on testing.
We cannot "just update to 64bit"
we *absolutely cannot* disable any security software whatever no matter how short a time. This is audited and will result in disciplinary action.

 

[starl]

Opening workbooks directly from the email is not a good idea. Wouldn't cause this issue.. but it's a pet peeve of mine. Macros might not run right, but the workbook should open.
Wouldn't disable macro protection... safer to set it to disable all macros without notification.

When you open it successfully - have you tried saving it as a new file?

A 5mb file using 150mb ram... I'd think some kind of calculation. or perhaps an object created with a nonstandard Excel addin that the current user doesn't have? If I remember right, Excel 2013 could add a few things. Does it have a UDF in it? What does the code in it do?

If I were troubleshooting the file, I'd try to break it down. On your pc, since you can open it, copy each sheet to its own workbook and send it to the user (or couple of sheets at a time). It's possible the file is corrupt, some Excel installs being more sensitive..

oh.. a thought... not sure if still relevant - but for years, Excel used the printer driver for calculations... strange as it may be, trying changing the default printer.

When you mailed yourself the file, did you email it from the user having issues? Did you email yourself the copy that had been saved on that machine? Or did you forward the email the user received? Did you clean out the users temp directory?

 

[SuperMachoJediKnight]

When you open it successfully - have you tried saving it as a new file?
yup. 3 different times

A 5mb file using 150mb ram... I'd think some kind of calculation. or perhaps an object created with a nonstandard Excel addin that the current user doesn't have? If I remember right, Excel 2013 could add a few things. Does it have a UDF in it? What does the code in it do?
I'm not familiar with the term UDF

If I were troubleshooting the file, I'd try to break it down. On your pc, since you can open it, copy each sheet to its own workbook and send it to the user (or couple of sheets at a time). It's possible the file is corrupt, some Excel installs being more sensitive..

oh.. a thought... not sure if still relevant - but for years, Excel used the printer driver for calculations... strange as it may be, trying changing the default printer.
That's a very good point-i don't actually have a printer connected, but some of the other tens of users dealing with this file must. I'll try changing the default anyway.

When you mailed yourself the file, did you email it from the user having issues? Did you email yourself the copy that had been saved on that machine? Or did you forward the email the user received? Did you clean out the users temp directory?
Forwarded directly from user's message. I didn't bother with the failed attempt copies i made on her machine.

 

[SuperMachoJediKnight]

changing the default printer changed nothing. today i'll copy the sheets to another workbook

 

[starl]

UDF is a User Defined Function - it's a Function written in code (macro), but used on a sheet.

I'd recommend you try opening up one of the failed attempt copies on your pc.

Can you, on your machine, actually STRIP the external references and have the other users try that workbook.

And if there is external data being added to a specific sheet, I'd test that one first.