System crash/freeze using OWC, Office 2003 on XP Pro

[Salil Gaitonde]

I'm trying to debug a strange system freeze/crash issue on a Windows
XP Pro laptop with OWC 10.0.0.4109, IE 6.0.2800 and Office 2003
installed.

I believe the problem is occuring when rendering a chart (a 3D graph).
The symptoms are very ugly. The browser will just freeze. I can't
bring up a Task Manager to kill it. Some of the elements in the OS
are still accessible, but some are not. If there are other apps
running, I can switch to them and they appear to be functioning
normally. But the browser is completely hung and the Task Manager is
inaccessible. The system doesn't appear to be working (either disk or
CPU) but I can't tell for sure since the Task Manager no longer works.
The only solution is to force the system to shutdown (restart isn't
working either so this is an unsafe reboot).

We have many other machines running this same config and other similar
configs and don't see this problem. I ran an SFC and it didn't report
any inconsistencies. Both the OS and Office are fully patched based
on Microsoft's scans.

We're really at a loss right now on how to remedy this. Please let me
know if you've seen similar behavior and/or know of a possible
solution to this.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

---Salil Gaitonde

 

[Alvin Bruney [MVP]]

Is IE patched and up to date. Have you downloaded and installed the latest
patches from the microsoft office site? that is your first move. if this is
done, you will need to open a trouble ticket with microsoft to resolve this
issue.

 

[Salil Gaitonde]

Yeah, I'll certainly file a trouble ticket. However, I'm afraid of
the response time Microsoft may take to get this resolved.

Here are more details on the problem in case anyone has seen it and
has a solution:

* It appears the problem occurs when using large data sets. I'm using
arrays in VB to bind data to the chart or spreadsheet components.

* I cannot bring any new windows up once this problem occurs. It
doesn't appear that the CPU or disk are being bogged down. It's just
like the Explorer is partially hung. I can close various windows if
they are up, but I cannot do anything with the IE window (close, kill,
minimize, etc).

* Event logs are not reporting anything abnormal that I can see when
this occurs.

Does anyone know of any Microsoft supplied tools which I can use to
see if IE is generating a stack trace somewhere? Is there a way to
expose some debugging in OWC or IE?

Thanks for any help.

Is IE patched and up to date. Have you downloaded and installed the latest
patches from the microsoft office site? that is your first move. if this is
done, you will need to open a trouble ticket with microsoft to resolve this
issue.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok

I'm trying to debug a strange system freeze/crash issue on a Windows
XP Pro laptop with OWC 10.0.0.4109, IE 6.0.2800 and Office 2003
installed.

I believe the problem is occuring when rendering a chart (a 3D graph).
The symptoms are very ugly. The browser will just freeze. I can't
bring up a Task Manager to kill it. Some of the elements in the OS
are still accessible, but some are not. If there are other apps
running, I can switch to them and they appear to be functioning
normally. But the browser is completely hung and the Task Manager is
inaccessible. The system doesn't appear to be working (either disk or
CPU) but I can't tell for sure since the Task Manager no longer works.
The only solution is to force the system to shutdown (restart isn't
working either so this is an unsafe reboot).

We have many other machines running this same config and other similar
configs and don't see this problem. I ran an SFC and it didn't report
any inconsistencies. Both the OS and Office are fully patched based
on Microsoft's scans.

We're really at a loss right now on how to remedy this. Please let me
know if you've seen similar behavior and/or know of a possible
solution to this.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

---Salil Gaitonde

 

[Alvin Bruney [MVP]]

what is a large dataset?
you can try this trick to see if it works (assuming you have all your
current patches and service packs installed). from code, disable the undo
and the events property of the spreadsheet.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok

Yeah, I'll certainly file a trouble ticket. However, I'm afraid of
the response time Microsoft may take to get this resolved.

Here are more details on the problem in case anyone has seen it and
has a solution:

* It appears the problem occurs when using large data sets. I'm using
arrays in VB to bind data to the chart or spreadsheet components.

* I cannot bring any new windows up once this problem occurs. It
doesn't appear that the CPU or disk are being bogged down. It's just
like the Explorer is partially hung. I can close various windows if
they are up, but I cannot do anything with the IE window (close, kill,
minimize, etc).

* Event logs are not reporting anything abnormal that I can see when
this occurs.

Does anyone know of any Microsoft supplied tools which I can use to
see if IE is generating a stack trace somewhere? Is there a way to
expose some debugging in OWC or IE?

Thanks for any help.

Is IE patched and up to date. Have you downloaded and installed the
latest
patches from the microsoft office site? that is your first move. if this
is
done, you will need to open a trouble ticket with microsoft to resolve
this
issue.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok

I'm trying to debug a strange system freeze/crash issue on a Windows
XP Pro laptop with OWC 10.0.0.4109, IE 6.0.2800 and Office 2003
installed.

I believe the problem is occuring when rendering a chart (a 3D graph).
The symptoms are very ugly. The browser will just freeze. I can't
bring up a Task Manager to kill it. Some of the elements in the OS
are still accessible, but some are not. If there are other apps
running, I can switch to them and they appear to be functioning
normally. But the browser is completely hung and the Task Manager is
inaccessible. The system doesn't appear to be working (either disk or
CPU) but I can't tell for sure since the Task Manager no longer works.
The only solution is to force the system to shutdown (restart isn't
working either so this is an unsafe reboot).

We have many other machines running this same config and other similar
configs and don't see this problem. I ran an SFC and it didn't report
any inconsistencies. Both the OS and Office are fully patched based
on Microsoft's scans.

We're really at a loss right now on how to remedy this. Please let me
know if you've seen similar behavior and/or know of a possible
solution to this.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

---Salil Gaitonde

 

[Salil Gaitonde]

The data behind the chart is approx. 9000 data points (in a chart).
Disabling events and undo had no effect.

It also seems to happen, in particular when the page is behind an IIS
server. In effect, if I point my browser directly to the static page
(saved off) then the problem doesn't seem to occur. All the OWC
manipulation is the the html (not serverside) so I would expect to see
the issue with IIS out of the mix.

Is there something "special" occuring when IIS is encountering a page
with OWC embedded in it (with no server side OWC logic).

Thanks,

--Salil

what is a large dataset?
you can try this trick to see if it works (assuming you have all your
current patches and service packs installed). from code, disable the undo
and the events property of the spreadsheet.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok

Yeah, I'll certainly file a trouble ticket. However, I'm afraid of
the response time Microsoft may take to get this resolved.

Here are more details on the problem in case anyone has seen it and
has a solution:

* It appears the problem occurs when using large data sets. I'm using
arrays in VB to bind data to the chart or spreadsheet components.

* I cannot bring any new windows up once this problem occurs. It
doesn't appear that the CPU or disk are being bogged down. It's just
like the Explorer is partially hung. I can close various windows if
they are up, but I cannot do anything with the IE window (close, kill,
minimize, etc).

* Event logs are not reporting anything abnormal that I can see when
this occurs.

Does anyone know of any Microsoft supplied tools which I can use to
see if IE is generating a stack trace somewhere? Is there a way to
expose some debugging in OWC or IE?

Thanks for any help.

Is IE patched and up to date. Have you downloaded and installed the
latest
patches from the microsoft office site? that is your first move. if this
is
done, you will need to open a trouble ticket with microsoft to resolve
this
issue.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok
I'm trying to debug a strange system freeze/crash issue on a Windows
XP Pro laptop with OWC 10.0.0.4109, IE 6.0.2800 and Office 2003
installed.

I believe the problem is occuring when rendering a chart (a 3D graph).
The symptoms are very ugly. The browser will just freeze. I can't
bring up a Task Manager to kill it. Some of the elements in the OS
are still accessible, but some are not. If there are other apps
running, I can switch to them and they appear to be functioning
normally. But the browser is completely hung and the Task Manager is
inaccessible. The system doesn't appear to be working (either disk or
CPU) but I can't tell for sure since the Task Manager no longer works.
The only solution is to force the system to shutdown (restart isn't
working either so this is an unsafe reboot).

We have many other machines running this same config and other similar
configs and don't see this problem. I ran an SFC and it didn't report
any inconsistencies. Both the OS and Office are fully patched based
on Microsoft's scans.

We're really at a loss right now on how to remedy this. Please let me
know if you've seen similar behavior and/or know of a possible
solution to this.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

---Salil Gaitonde

 

[MSNEWS]

I would try to find out what is going on in your system....You can do that
by using some of the utilities like www.sysinternals.com

we had a similar problem.. the problem was caused by a VB script code in a
calculated cell which is trying to load some vb....dll.
The OWC was searching for the DLL in the entire path including a network
drives.. we found this issue using the sysinternal tool "FileMon"

So, i would encourage you to see what is going on when load the OWC by
monitoring through the sysinternals tools.

Good Luck

Ganesh babu

The data behind the chart is approx. 9000 data points (in a chart).
Disabling events and undo had no effect.

It also seems to happen, in particular when the page is behind an IIS
server. In effect, if I point my browser directly to the static page
(saved off) then the problem doesn't seem to occur. All the OWC
manipulation is the the html (not serverside) so I would expect to see
the issue with IIS out of the mix.

Is there something "special" occuring when IIS is encountering a page
with OWC embedded in it (with no server side OWC logic).

Thanks,

--Salil

what is a large dataset?
you can try this trick to see if it works (assuming you have all your
current patches and service packs installed). from code, disable the undo
and the events property of the spreadsheet.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok

Yeah, I'll certainly file a trouble ticket. However, I'm afraid of
the response time Microsoft may take to get this resolved.

Here are more details on the problem in case anyone has seen it and
has a solution:

* It appears the problem occurs when using large data sets. I'm using
arrays in VB to bind data to the chart or spreadsheet components.

* I cannot bring any new windows up once this problem occurs. It
doesn't appear that the CPU or disk are being bogged down. It's just
like the Explorer is partially hung. I can close various windows if
they are up, but I cannot do anything with the IE window (close, kill,
minimize, etc).

* Event logs are not reporting anything abnormal that I can see when
this occurs.

Does anyone know of any Microsoft supplied tools which I can use to
see if IE is generating a stack trace somewhere? Is there a way to
expose some debugging in OWC or IE?

Thanks for any help.


"Alvin Bruney [MVP]" <vapor at steaming post office> wrote in message
Is IE patched and up to date. Have you downloaded and installed the
latest
patches from the microsoft office site? that is your first move. if
this
is
done, you will need to open a trouble ticket with microsoft to resolve
this
issue.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
[ASP.NET MVP http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx]
Got tidbits? Get it here... http://tinyurl.com/27cok
I'm trying to debug a strange system freeze/crash issue on a Windows
XP Pro laptop with OWC 10.0.0.4109, IE 6.0.2800 and Office 2003
installed.

I believe the problem is occuring when rendering a chart (a 3D
graph).
The symptoms are very ugly. The browser will just freeze. I can't
bring up a Task Manager to kill it. Some of the elements in the OS
are still accessible, but some are not. If there are other apps
running, I can switch to them and they appear to be functioning
normally. But the browser is completely hung and the Task Manager
is
inaccessible. The system doesn't appear to be working (either disk
or
CPU) but I can't tell for sure since the Task Manager no longer
works.
The only solution is to force the system to shutdown (restart isn't
working either so this is an unsafe reboot).

We have many other machines running this same config and other
similar
configs and don't see this problem. I ran an SFC and it didn't
report
any inconsistencies. Both the OS and Office are fully patched based
on Microsoft's scans.

We're really at a loss right now on how to remedy this. Please let
me
know if you've seen similar behavior and/or know of a possible
solution to this.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

---Salil Gaitonde