Why do I keep getting "not enough memory to run Excel" messages?

Anonymous
2013-05-11T18:45:24+00:00

I have a new very powerful computer. Intel Core i7 with an 8mb L3 cache, a 256gb SSD OS drive of which there is 205gb free, two 1TB mechanical hard drives set up in RAID 1, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX graphics card, and 16gb of 1666mhz ram. It was purchased as a mobile workstation for Pete's sake! With NO other programs open, if I open my email, (Outlook 2013 btw), start a new email, and try to attach a tiny Excel file, (I'm talkin 40kb tiny!) I get an error message that there isn't enough memory to run Excel! I'm not even trying to run Excel! Just attach a small Excel file to an email! What gives? When I look at my resource monitor, there's usually at least 11 or 12 gigs of memory still free. This computer should be able to do literally ANYTHING I want, and multiple programs at once! After the error pops up, I can close it, and then attach the Excel file. Then everything goes ok. Then, sometimes after I've already completely CLOSED Outlook, and I start doing something else entirely, the "not enough memory to run Microsoft Excel. Please close other applications and try again" message pops up on my screen! This is ludicrous! I'm having issues with other Office 2013 apps as well, but this one? Give me a break!

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-25T16:28:14+00:00

    Hi

    Although this is a very old post. but I fixed the problem by following the below steps.

    1. Open the Property of the concerned file.
    2. Go to Tab "General"
    3. Click "Unblock"
    4. Click "Apply"
    5. Click "OK"

    If you are trying to directly open the file from internet explorer then save the file first

    Hope it helps

    I was hoping it would work, however running Windows 8 there is no "unblock" under the general tab.

    Also,I have hundreds of files all over my computer, so a one by one changing would not be practical.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-10T15:10:10+00:00

    This is similar to the bug when Word says "Unable to start (24)"

    Every time I click save, or open another excel file, this Excel error pops up.

    MS Office 2013 is VERY buggy, and support cannot fix either problem.

    Fail.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-04T19:18:01+00:00

    Here is the solution. Shame Microsoft did not figure it out.

    http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1738020

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-08-26T22:22:37+00:00

    I'm getting the same issue.  In fact, the error message popped up about 8 times after I closed my gmail where I was sending excel attachments.  What should have been a 15 second process of attaching excel documents took 10 minutes!  Sounds like Office 365 is the issue.  It's nearly impossible for me to be productive with all these little things happening that slow my system down.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-09-04T11:58:27+00:00

    Hello Stephen,

    Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting your query.

    Let me assist you with Excel issue.

    What was the size of the Excel file?

    Step: 1

    You may start the computer in clean boot mode, this would disable all the non-Microsoft applications and the antivirus which could be one of the reason for the issue.

    Refer the article below to start the computer in clean boot:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

    Note: Ensure to restart the computer in normal mode after completing the troubleshooting steps

    Step: 2

    Check if Excel is running in compatibility mode.

    You may browse to the location below and check if Excel is running in compatibility mode.

     C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\ClentX86\Root\Office15. (Windows 32 bit)

    C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office 15\ ClientX64\Root\Office15. (Windows 64 bit)

    Right click on Excel.exe and then click on Properties.

    In the Properties window click on Compatibility tab.

    Uncheck ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’ and then click on Apply and OK.

    Now try to send the Excel file as attachment and check if it works as expected.

    I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

    Thank you.

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