Cannot open large excel file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Niall Caslin
  • Start date Start date
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Niall Caslin

I have a large excel (Excel 97) file on an NT4 server.
When I try to open the file (across the network) on my
computer - XP pro with office2000 premium edition - it is
giving me an out of memory error (I have 256Mb of memory
aand a 2GHz processor. I have also increased the virtual
memory).

Other XP and Windows 2000 users are getting the error.
Some are using office 97 and some office 2000.

The windows 98 computers can all open the file even though
their resources are much lower. The file is about 50Mbs
in size.

Any help would be would be appreciated
 
Is it just the users with Excel 97 getting the error. Excel has it's own internal memory
limits irrespective of any RAM you may have, and these have increased with each release.
50MB is extremely large for a spreadsheet, especially if using 97. See here for more
details:-

http://www.decisionmodels.com/memlimitsc.htm
 
Thanks for your reply Ken

it does not seem to have anything to do with which version
of excel is used - it seems to relate more to the
Operating system. Users with windows 98 (all using Excel
97) have no problem opening the file. users with Windows
2000 and XP (some using Excel 97 some using Excel 2000)
cannot open the file.

The file was originally created in Excel 97. Is there a
maximum excel file size. Why are the windows 98 Pc's able
to open the file and the XP's and 2000 Pc's not.

Regards
Niall
-----Original Message-----
Is it just the users with Excel 97 getting the error.
Click to expand...
Excel has it's own internal memory
limits irrespective of any RAM you may have, and these
Click to expand...
have increased with each release.
 
Sorry, but you have kinda got me there!!! I have no idea why an OS should
affect it in the way you describe. There used to be a lot of issues with people
using Excel 97 where it would bomb out on them because of a corrupted toolbar
customisation file, and the things that would tip it over the edge were quite
varied. This was a *.xlb file, that if it was over say 30K-50K in size would
tend to give some people a real headache, but it usually manifested itself by
shutting Excel down and then refusing to let it start again.

Either way, 50MB for an Excel file is way above the limits most people in here
would normally impose on themselves when creating a file. What is it that
drives such a size??? There are ways to try and reduce the size of a file that
you may wish to try, but I'm just fishing in the dark now I'm afraid:-

One way from Ron De Bruin
Excel can think that the usedrange is bigger then it is.

You can see how big your usedrange is on every sheet with CTRL-END
If the row/column is not the last row/column with data then:

1 Select the first row below your last row with data
2 CTRL-SHIFT-DOWN ARROW
3 Right click on the selection and choose delete

And then for the columns

1 Select the first column next to your last column with data
2 CTRL-SHIFT-RIGHT ARROW
3 Right click on the selection and choose delete

Save the file an close it
See how big the file is now?
 
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