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Dr. Watson error in Excel Worksheet

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4 replies

by amembgso

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I have a spreadsheet created in Office 97 and then opened and used in Office 2000. Now when I ty to open the file it gives the macro virus warning, and then when I tell it to disable or enable macros and open, I get a Dr. Watson, access vilation error. The error log points to a fault at function 3005c5eb 832000 and dword ptr [eax] , 0x0 ds:00000018=????????.

Does anyone know how to resolve this without throwing away the spreadsheet and rebuilding it?

4 replies

by dreamboat

Try these steps:

1. Hold the shift key while double-clicking the filename to open it. This should bypass any macros.

2. Right-click one of the sheet tabs. Choose *select all sheets*.

3. Right-click a sheet tab again and hit *move or copy*.
4. Checkmark *create a copy*.

5. Hit the dropdown and choose *new book*.

6. Hit ok.

Save this file and see if you can open it. If not, I can clean it out for you myself.

Dreamboat@TheWordExpert.com

by amembgso

Tried it, but it still presents the enable/disable macros screen and then exits Excel. Can't get to step 2. Open to other suggestions.

by dreamboat

You could try opening the file directly from Word. I believe, however, you'll only get the first sheet out of it. I've suggested that you send it to me. Is that something you don't want to do?

Dreamboat@TheWordExpert.com

by dreamboat

I have just resolved this issue for someone by opening the file in Excel XP. Here's what caused THEIR error: They'd been copying the same worksheet(s) over and over again into the same workbook. Externally, Excel may name these sheets Sheet1, Sheet2, etc. But internally, a copy of Sheet1 becomes Sheet11, and a copy of Sheet11 becomes Sheet111. Eventually, there are too many characters in the sheet name. Excel XP has a little bit better *error handling* and was able to open the file. The fix is to then save it to Excel 5.0, which doesn't recognize this issue, and the *internal* sheet names revert back to appropriate sheet names. The file can then be opened and saved as an Excel 2000 file again. I cannot recreate the issue in Excel 2000 so perhaps it was something that occurred in Excel 97. I do know that this occurs often with files that have been around for a while, i.e., several years. I'll be happy to attempt the fix with your file too.

~ Dreamboat@www.TheWordExpert.com

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