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
    2011-08-10T16:49:59+00:00

    Did you ever get this resolved through Microsoft.  My end user is getting quite frustrated.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-07-29T18:32:51+00:00

    I have the same issue!! and my system is Core i7 with 8 G of RAM how much resources does Microsoft need, what is the Fix?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-07-26T22:20:25+00:00

    I have this issue on a client machine and I am finding it frustrating that even with the numerous reports of this error out there, no one seems to have found a solution.  I am a tech support professional, so I have tried more possible fixes that I would care to name, yet this error still occurs.  In researching this issue, I have found that the error seems to be another Microsoft "catch-all" error in that it can be caused under numerous and unrelated circumstances.  This is quite frustrating for someone trying to troubleshoot the cause as there could be solutions that work in some cases and not in others.  In all of my time working in IT I still have a hard time trying to figure out why companies love to use generic errors.  The few minutes or even hours of programming time they save causes hundreds of lost hours for their customers in trying to decipher cryptic error messages. 

    In any case, I think I am going to burn through one of our Microsoft Support Cases and work directly with a tech on this issue.  I have been able to reproduce this error on the machine in question on a regular basis, so I have a good feeling that we will be able to get to the root cause of the issue. 

    If we are able to solve the issue, then I will post back here, even though the fix that works for me may not work for you. 

    Here's hoping for good luck!

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