insufficient resources opening Excel

A Win98 PC with 256MB ram and 10GB free disk space cannot open the EXCEL program with no other applications open. No hardware/software changes recently. I uninstalled and re-installed EXCEL. I de-fragged the hard drive and ran ADAWARE to clean out any spyware. I can open Outlook, Word, Explorer, and Internet Explorer simultaneously with no resource problem. I ran the Resource Meter program from DOS and it shows plenty of resource but when I try to call up EXCEL the hourglass just sits there and freezes the system. I have run Scandisk and powered down the system several times. I ran a VirusScan with a recent DAT file and found no errors. Any suggestions?