This problem started in Excel 97 so I upgraded to Excel 2K. The problem is anytime a sheet is open, even a blank sheet, and you click the top right square (left of the A cell and right above the 1 cell) in order to select the entire sheet it pops up an error that says “out of memory”. Eventually it gives you a message that there is a large amount of data on the clipboard when you try to quit Excel and you have a choice to either click yes to save it or no to discard it. I realize when I click that particular square in the upper left side it is selecting what seems to be an infinite number of cells but it is something I have always been able to do until recently. I tried highlighting only the cells I needed and doing a copy and paste (and also a paste special) and it copies but loses all of the formatting and I have to readjust the borders to the correct width. This happened on another PC also and I tried everything and could not get it to stop happening and then suddenly over the weekend it stopped giving me the error and I was able to do a select entire sheet and copy.
At the computer I’m on now I tried doing the same thing in Excel 2003 and got what amounts to the same error. It says “excel cannot complete this task with available resources. choose less data or close other applications.”
Just selecting the entire sheet doesn’t copy it to the clipboard. So, somehow you already have a lot of data saved to the clipboard. If so, then that could explain why you are running out of resources.
(It doesn’t select an infinite amount, just the maximum number of rows/cells.)
It appears the clipboard in Excel retains the data, even after a paste. (You can paste the same data repeatedly.)
Maybe it would help if you copy a small amount of data to the clipboard first, replacing the huge amount already there, to free up memory before doing your selection in Excel.
Hi Lionel and thanks for your response. I have opened the clipboard and checked to see if anything is on it (start->run->clipbrd.exe) and a couple of times I did have to clear it. I’ve also tried selecting a small area on the spreadsheet and copying and pasting it to another sheet and then trying to do what I originally did but still got the same out of memory error when I clicked the button to highlight the entire sheet and selected copy. What is odd however is that I just tried your suggestion in Excel 2003 and it worked. It just isn’t working in 2000 or 97. I suggested upgrading the other computer to 2003 but that is a very expensive fix due to the licensing being over $300 us. Thanks for your suggestion.
You might also try allocating more memory to the application. It believe you can do that in the get info window or about excel window.
I use Excel on Mac OSX now - and the VX version is a bit different. But if memory serves me correctly, you can adjust the memory allocation for the Windows version.
Wonderwench: I’m not sure how to do that. I don’t believe it’s a true memory problem though. It seems to be a bug in the MS product because the computer used to be able to perform this function and now it doesn’t work. I saw this on another system and tried everything and then a few days later it worked again. Maybe the same thing will happen again but I sure would like to be able to solve this so I know what to do next time it happens on another system.
Reply: Yes. Have rebooted several times. Warm & cold.
I’ve also retrieved all MS Windows updates. Deleted all of the .tmp files. Ran chkdsk. Double checked the clipboard to make sure it was empty. Increased the swap file size.
Just a quick note on the system:
Windows 2K Pro SP4
256 MB Ram
20 GB HD with 13 GB free
Office 97 with Excel upgraded to Excel 2K (Installed the O2K SP3 also)
I still have Excel 97 on the computer but I renamed the .exe to .old. Thanks for all responses.
Well I had really high hopes for the solution scottanrsn posted but it didn’t work. I’m not sure how my virtual memory settings could be too high since I have lots of available hard drive space and my swap file is set to 354 min / 2056 max. I have over 13 gigs available space on a 20 gig drive.