Excel Crashes Routinely

[cgreid]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

Hello,

A new problem showed up today for the first time ever... When working with Excel files (new, old, PC, Mac, whatever), the program will suddenly crash for no apparent reason. I can get the crash to occur on NEW files -- create a new file, save it as xlms to desktop, close it, open it, and then close it causes a crash. The problem first showed up earlier today with an imported PC Excel file (PC Office '03) for which I have typically had no problems.

What changed is that I updated both the Apple OS 10.5.7 to 10.5.8 and updated Office 2008 from 12.2.0 to 12.2.1 late last week. Today was the first time I used Excel hard with lots of copying and equations.

I have verified and repaired permissions on the HD. All ok.
I ran the MS Database tool and it said everything was ok.

Here is the crash log from when I created a new file and was able to force the program to crash by opening and closing the new file:

Any suggestions? This is preventing me from getting productive work done on sheets with calculations as those are very unstable. Simple sheets with lists seem to be more stable.

There are many threads with "crash" in them, but I could not find any for OS 10.5.8 and Office 2008 12.2.1 (both of which should have fixed many older crash issues -- which I never had.)

Thanks for the help and advice on this topic.

--------------------------------------
Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2009-08-25 17:40:59 -0500
Application Name: Microsoft Excel
Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.Excel
Application Signature: XCEL
Application Version: 12.2.0.090605
Crashed Module Name: CoreFoundation
Crashed Module Version: unknown
Crashed Module Offset: 0x0007fdb4
Blame Module Name: CoreFoundation
Blame Module Version: unknown
Blame Module Offset: 0x0007fdb4
Application LCID: 1033
Extra app info: Reg=en Loc=0x0409

Thread 0 crashed:

# 1 0x972b3db4 in .objc_class_name___NSCFSet + 0x97177188 (CoreFoundation + 0x0007fdb4)
# 2 0x972b3d7c in .objc_class_name___NSCFSet + 0x97177150 (CoreFoundation + 0x0007fd7c)
# 3 0x9154c5b8 in .objc_class_name_CTGlyphStorageInterface + 0x914E4484 (CoreText + 0x0004e5b8)
# 4 0x91532d74 in .objc_class_name_CTGlyphStorageInterface + 0x914CAC40 (CoreText + 0x00034d74)
# 5 0x91503f4c in .objc_class_name_CTGlyphStorageInterface + 0x9149BE18 (CoreText + 0x00005f4c)
# 6 0x92691f28 in .objc_class_name_IPMDFontRange + 0x923323E0 (HIToolbox + 0x00027f28)
# 7 0x92691ea8 in .objc_class_name_IPMDFontRange + 0x92332360 (HIToolbox + 0x00027ea8)
# 8 0x92691b80 in .objc_class_name_IPMDFontRange + 0x92332038 (HIToolbox + 0x00027b80)
# 9 0x926905a4 in .objc_class_name_IPMDFontRange + 0x92330A5C (HIToolbox + 0x000265a4)
# 10 0x926903f4 in .objc_class_name_IPMDFontRange + 0x923308AC (HIToolbox + 0x000263f4)
# 11 0x0174e414 in _McpCFStringWidth + 0x00000080 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x00135414)
# 12 0x0174e568 in _McpCFSystemStringWidth + 0x00000138 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x00135568)
# 13 0x016a1260 in _McpFGetIMcpMruList + 0x00000328 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x00088260)
# 14 0x00193d38 in __mh_execute_header + 0x00192D38 (Microsoft Excel + 0x00192d38)
# 15 0x0068f13c in __mh_execute_header + 0x0068E13C (Microsoft Excel + 0x0068e13c)
# 16 0x01c7e304 in _MsoFCreateToolbarSet + 0x00001374 (MicrosoftOffice + 0x00363304)
# 17 0x01c7e59c in _MsoFCreateToolbarSet + 0x0000160C (MicrosoftOffice + 0x0036359c)
# 18 0x016affd8 in _McpFCreateControl + 0x00002564 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x00096fd8)
# 19 0x016ae2a8 in _McpFCreateControl + 0x00000834 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x000952a8)
# 20 0x016f93b4 in _McpCreateControlContainer + 0x00003920 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x000e03b4)
# 21 0x016f995c in _McpCreateControlContainer + 0x00003EC8 (MicrosoftComponentPlugin + 0x000e095c)
# 22 0x92671c48 in .objc_class_name_IPMDFontRange + 0x92312100 (HIToolbox + 0x00007c

 

[cgreid]

Here is an update on this issue...

Excel is now stable. I used Apple Disk Utility to repair permissions, two or three times (re-start after each time.) I also stopped using Excel for several hours to give the OS a chance to catch up with folder maintenance, etc, etc. This morning I am not able to reproduce the problems I had yesterday.

A contributing factor may be the backup utility I am using, which is SuperDuper! (Shirt Pocket software). It's a great backup utility, but it does repair permissions whenever it runs. Piecing together the chronology of the repeated crash event, the crashes started after SuperDuper! had just completed a backup. I'll be watching this carefully during the next backup cycle to see if the crashes repeat.

C.G. Reid