Excel 2003 pauses after copy or paste actions

[Inspector Gadget]

I'm running Excel 2003 on Windows XP Pro SP2 with a dual core PC, 2GB of RAM
and recently I've noticed that Excel will pause for 3-7 seconds after a copy
or paste action regardless of the size of spreadsheet loaded.

For example, in a new spreadsheet with 3 cells populated if I highlight the
3 cells and hit copy, the crawling border appears around the 3 cells but
freezes instantly then the hour glass appears for 3-5 seconds (Excel will not
respond to mouse clicks) and then it unfreezes with the 'crawling ants'
border in motion. If I then move the cursor to the desired target cell and
hit "ENTER", the copied items will appear right away but the hourglass will
also display for 3-5 seconds and Excel will be frozen during that time, after
which I get the standard 'Ready' cursor.

Similar behaviour occurs if I try to move cells - for example if I highlight
a cell and I grasp the border of the highlighted cell to move it to a new
location, the outline can be moved to any target location as it should but
when I release the mouse, Excel will pause, the hourglass will appear for 2-3
seconds and then the values will appear in the target location.

These copy, paste actions were previously instantaneous and I've tried
repairing the installation of Office 2003 (through Office installer) and
resetting options to their defaults, scanning for viruses (none), but the
behviour remains the same for copy, paste actions. Any suggestions are
appreciated.

 

[Jim Cone]

Some things to check...
Do you have Google Desktop? It can slow response time.
Have you added a new anti-virus version recently (or changed settings)? Same as above.
The Windows Temp folder and the %temp% folder ( Start | Run ) may need clearing.
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware
(Excel Add-ins / Excel Programming)




"Inspector Gadget"
wrote in message
I'm running Excel 2003 on Windows XP Pro SP2 with a dual core PC, 2GB of RAM
and recently I've noticed that Excel will pause for 3-7 seconds after a copy
or paste action regardless of the size of spreadsheet loaded.

For example, in a new spreadsheet with 3 cells populated if I highlight the
3 cells and hit copy, the crawling border appears around the 3 cells but
freezes instantly then the hour glass appears for 3-5 seconds (Excel will not
respond to mouse clicks) and then it unfreezes with the 'crawling ants'
border in motion. If I then move the cursor to the desired target cell and
hit "ENTER", the copied items will appear right away but the hourglass will
also display for 3-5 seconds and Excel will be frozen during that time, after
which I get the standard 'Ready' cursor.

Similar behaviour occurs if I try to move cells - for example if I highlight
a cell and I grasp the border of the highlighted cell to move it to a new
location, the outline can be moved to any target location as it should but
when I release the mouse, Excel will pause, the hourglass will appear for 2-3
seconds and then the values will appear in the target location.

These copy, paste actions were previously instantaneous and I've tried
repairing the installation of Office 2003 (through Office installer) and
resetting options to their defaults, scanning for viruses (none), but the
behviour remains the same for copy, paste actions. Any suggestions are
appreciated.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

Thanks for the suggestions below. I removed Google Desktop and the anti-virus
software and I cleared the temp folders listed below as best I could (there
were six small files in the %temp% that Windows says are in use and I can't
delete them)

The behaviour is unchanged so far. It's somewhat annoying and puzzling. I've
done a lot of searching on the web for similar issues but I haven't found
anything and this may be specific to some combination of things on my pc. I
have a laptop with the similar combination of software and same version of
Excel and it's fine (and the hardware is not as powerful as my desktop). My
desktop drives are configured in RAID0 arrangement - could this have anything
to do with it?

 

[Jim Cone]

Re: "drives are configured in RAID0 arrangement - could this have anything to do with it?"

I have no idea; Google shows 3500 hits for... Raid drives "slow performance"
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware
(Excel Add-ins / Excel Programming)



"Inspector Gadget"
wrote in message
Thanks for the suggestions below. I removed Google Desktop and the anti-virus
software and I cleared the temp folders listed below as best I could (there
were six small files in the %temp% that Windows says are in use and I can't
delete them)

The behaviour is unchanged so far. It's somewhat annoying and puzzling. I've
done a lot of searching on the web for similar issues but I haven't found
anything and this may be specific to some combination of things on my pc. I
have a laptop with the similar combination of software and same version of
Excel and it's fine (and the hardware is not as powerful as my desktop). My
desktop drives are configured in RAID0 arrangement - could this have anything
to do with it?

 

[Jim Cone]

One more thing to try...
In Excel go to Tools | Add-ins and make a note of all of the installed (checked) add-ins.
Uncheck all of them and see if the situation improves.
If so, add the add-ins back in, one at a time, until you find the troublesome one.
Jim Cone

 

[Inspector Gadget]

I inspected the Add-Ins and there are 7 listed but none are checked. I tried
also removing Office 2003 and re-installing it and the behavior is unchanged.
It's strange and puzzling - I'm unable to determine the root cause and I'm
trying to remember the changes to my pc since the time I believe it was
working properly. I don't use Excel too often so I can't pinpoint exactly
when the behaviour changed to the long pauses for cut/paste/move actions.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

Jim thanks for your suggestions. Your earliest one was the closest to the
actual solution, which I found by reinstalling the OS and base applications.
I discovered that Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10 had a service that was
running in the background to monitor folders for specific media files. This
system tray utility was causing the copy paste pausing in Excel although I
don't understand why. But I do know that after turning it off, Excel would
return to the usual instantaneous copy/paste actions.

 

[Pam in Sunland]

Bingo. I've been having the same problem and it has been driving me bonkers.
Just now I stopped Roxio's monitoring software and - presto! - the problem
went away.

This is not the first problem that Roxio has caused. It's crappy software,
IMHO.

 

[MARCEL SAUCIER]

To fix things in Excel 2007: watch for query tables - save in xlsm (macro-enabled) format instead of xls format (97-2003 compatible). Not only the saved file will be 50 % smaller but all Cut Copy & Paste are very fast now.