Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications.

Anonymous
2010-05-05T14:25:22+00:00

Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications. the size of the file is 640MB with over 250k records. I have 3.25GB of memory. It takes 5 mintues for the file to open.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-09-07T15:07:34+00:00

I have been experiencing this problem for months (i.e., Excel cannot complete the task with available resources. Choose less data or close applications).  I am running Windows 7 and Office 2010.  The problem can occur with very small spreadsheets so it has nothing to do with the complexity of the spreadsheets.  After reading the other posts, especially the one from Chuthor, I began to suspect incompatibilities between Excel and other MS software that I've downloaded.

Anyway, I just uninstalled Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Outlook Social Connector for Live Messenger, which came with an update from Microsoft on 4/7/2011.  This appears to have solved the problem.

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Anonymous
2012-04-09T18:19:33+00:00

We eventually opened a ticket with Microsoft. Apparently this is on their radar, with no real fix just this work around. The users were experiencing this error daily, and by disabling preview pane in the 3 necessar locations completly fixed the issue. Here is the workaround MS sent me.

Windows 7 is new with Preview/Details panes. These Preview/Details panes contribute to the "Available resources" issues, as well as our "Locked for Editing by another user" issues. We consider turning them off in these 3 locations as a valid test:

Windows:

1. Right click on Start Ribbon.

2. Click Open Windows Explorer.

3. Click Organize | Layout  |

4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

Excel:

1. Click File | Open.

2. Click Organize | Layout  |

3. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

Outlook:

1. Open a new e-mail.

2. In the "Include" group, click Attach File.

3. Click Organize | Layout  |

4. Uncheck Details Pane and Preview Pane.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-08-24T19:51:41+00:00

    We don't use Netform X sorry, I wish that would have been the common factor.  I ended up just completely rebuilding my user's machine and she has been using it for a week with no problems now.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  I would still like to have an answer to this problem as I don't feel like rebuilding machines every time it happens, this is a serious pain especially for remote users.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-08-24T19:35:00+00:00

    This just recently started happening to me (within the last month, after what seemed like a LOT of Microsoft updates.) I have 8GB of RAM. :) 

    I've "repaired" Office 2010, no change.

    Here's something I know I installed around the same time.... Anyone else here using NetformX? I started getting errors with Netformx and Excel at the exact same time. Would love to hear if that's something in common between all of us.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-08-24T16:54:42+00:00

    Any solution out there yet? Seems to have been going on for quite some time to a multitude of people. Could this perhaps be a priority?

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