Excel XP hangs for no apparent reason

[WindowWizard]

While using Excel XP (on Win 2000 SP2) it will hang the system for no apparent reason. The only common theme that I can find is it happens when highlighting data. By performing frequent (like after EVERY change) saves, the problem does not seem to manifest itself.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled Excel and even the entire Office XP package and the problem persists.

Any recommendations?

 

[xlhelp]

For the second time today, I would recommend increasing virtual memory. If all hell breaks loose, wouldn't that be a good thing?

 

[WindowWizard]

How much VM does it need? It's already at 576Mb!

 

[xlhelp]

I would go as high as 768, but not more.

BTW, some of the systems at our work have 1.2GB VM (very few), they slow down a bit but at least they don't hang. If all hell breaks loose, wouldn't that be a good thing?

 

[WindowWizard]

I'll bump it up to 768 and see what happens. It may take some time to find out, considering there isn't much going on right now.

 

[WindowWizard]

Bumping it to 768 didn't help. Even after a clean reboot and a clean sheet, the system will freeze after highlighting a dozen or so empty cells.

I uninstalled XP and re-installed 2K and have not had any problems. It's even faster!

 

[stillnumber1]

I have seen a similar issue with Office XP where it stops repsonding when you try to open documents in rich text format. But when I tried to open documents in Html or plain text format. The document opened right up. This is very consistent on each desktop. I have not been able to find anything on Microsoft's site. Let me know if you find a fix for this problem it may help me resolve my issue as well.