Not enough memory in excel

[jesperloh]

Hi, i met a problem with the excel. Sometimes when i need to save the excel documents, excel will prompt an error saying there is not enough memory. I've done repairing through the CD and it's still the same. The version of windows is XP, and office is 2000. Although the problem is not frequent, but it can be troublesome if i have to save an important file.

 

[psaus]

Memory typically has to do with RAM, therefore adding more to your system could help. But the context of your post actually makes me think you're running low on storage. Make sure you're hard drive has enough space.
If you're low; Empty the recycle bin, run "Disk Cleanup" (found under Start/accessories/system tools).

 

[jesperloh]

The PC still has 74GB memory, and the RAM is at 2GB. It's far more enough to run excel dont you think? Maybe because it's running win XP and office 2000 made you think my PC is an antique, which made you suggest that i should do disk cleanup right?

 

[psaus]

Hmmm, both of those seem ok. 2GB is a little light these days, but if all this computer is doing is a little "Office" work, then it should be enough.
74GB of storage is definitely enough too.
Can you see a pattern in the size of the XLS files that cause problems? As in are the excel files that produce the error over 10MB (or something like that)?

Are there any other scenarios that produce the same or similar errors? (word, internet explorer/firefox, etc)

Do you have more than one hard drive in your computer? Or maybe this happens when you're using an XLS file off of a USB drive? Maybe even a network drive?

As for why I suggested disk clean-up, I suspected that Excel was complaining it was running out of "something" combined with the insinuation in your OP that you couldn't actually save the file when this happened. Therefore, I suspected storage (not memory; memory = RAM).

Just as regular housecleaning, you should run disk clean up and defragment. So if you haven't done this in a long time, go ahead and do it just in case. Could only help. (within disk clean up, if you're uncertain if something should be deleted, don't delete it, uncheck the box - however anything saying "temporary" should safely be deleted)

In short, I'm a little puzzled based on the information you've given. If you can answer some of my questions or include other information, maybe we can find the culprit. None the less, do the house cleaning, always helps a tad. (fyi, defragment can take ages, so do it when you're not going to be using the computer for an hour or 3.)

 

[jesperloh]

The size of the file varies, at least >1mb. Any files can prompt that error message. And yep, its just for office work purpose. The problem doesnt surface everytime though. It's quite a random issue. The desktop only has one HDD and files are always stored in the Disk itself. We are not encouraged to use documents over the network, so we dont actually do it. I've tried defragmenting my home's PC before, and apparently some items were actually misplaced after that procedure. So i will only disk cleanup and free up spaces from temporary files and compressing of old files now. Which is quite sufficient.

 

[psaus]

Hmmm, as I've said before, I'm a bit puzzled. If you can, the next time this happens, can you post here with the exact and full details of the error message? There should be an error code and alike when this happens, and maybe that can help us uncovers something else.

 

[Hawkeye22]

This sounds odd to me, but I'll take a shot in the dark. That version of excel is limited to 16,384 rows. If you open a file with more rows, it tells you "File not loaded completely". What happens if you try to save a file with more then 16,384 rows or don't the row numbers go that high?

 

[jesperloh]

So far, it hasnt occur yet, but 16,384 rows.. thats kinda hardcore for an excel file... the file i open is usually less than 5mb. Im alright with opening the file. Just when it comes to saving, thats when the error kicks in. There aint much formulas involved in it either... weird..

 

[Hawkeye22]

Newer versions of excel are able to handle over 1,000,000 rows. We get some pretty large excel files here at work that go well over the 16,384 row limit in older versions.

Does the error specifically say "low memory" or does it say "low resources"? Anyhow, this does seem like a memory problem. Some of the info here may help, but the next time it happens, try closing down some other programs and see if it makes a difference.

http/www.add-ins.com/support/out-of-memory-or-not-enough-resource-problem-with-microsoft-excel.htm

 

[limpingblind]

I faced similar problem and had a strange solution to it. I was preparing the excel model and I was adding comments to many cells.
When I tried saving, it threw an error saying the system that you are saving to does not have enough memory and it also said that the system was unable to remove personal information or something like that.
So, once I cleared the comments the problem was gone. Perhaps the reason why excel was not able to remove personal info from comments was because the sheet was protected.

 

[jesperloh]

Hmm, mine was slightly different from your case. But there wasnt any comments, maybe the data was just a bit too much. And the best thing to advice you guys is to stick with the same version of office. If one were to use a 2003 to edit it, and another uses 2007 to edit, there wont be much of a problem until later part where 2007 adds more formulas and sophisticated ones, 2003 will have problem opening it and prompting that there are too many different cells. It will lead you to not being able to open the files.