Excel 2013 starts up with blank screen when opened from explorer

Thanks for your quick reply, Vijay. No luck though. 

Problem: No grid, icons in ribbon are grey, etc. The only files that open normally are those previously created with Excel 2013 or that I had opened a week ago or  and converted when closing. I installed Office 2013 about two weeks ago.

Option 1: No files in folder XLSTART 

Option 2: There were three xlb files: Excel12.xlb, Excel14.xlb, Excel15.xlb. At first I just changed the extension for 15 and opened Excel, which created a new file. Then I tried to open one of the files that is giving me trouble. Same problem. Then I changed the extensions of all 3 files. No improvement. Then I removed ALL xlb files. No change. 

Option 3: Not relevant. 

Option 4: I disabled the only 2 non-native Excel Add-ins, one at a time: Omni Page, and Send to Bluetooth. No change. 

Option 5: This link refers to older versions of Excel. Some suggestions are not relevant. Others did not help. 

Option 6: Not relevant. 

Option 7: No help.  

What next?

These are the general reasons. Discard ones which you have already tried -

Option 1 - Please look into C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART (replace user name with your user name) and see if is contains few files. Move those files to some other location (i.e create a backup of those files and delete all files from here). Hence, make XLSTART folder blank.

Now open the file and see if the problem disappears or not. (If you need few files in XLSTART, you can selectively do it once you diagnose that this is the cause)

Note - to find XLSTART path,

1. Open Excel
2. ALT+F11
3. If Immediate Window is not visible, type CTRL+G. Same can be also be accessed through View > Immediate Window
4. Type ? application.StartupPath and press enter
5. You will have your path below.

Option 2 - Few users have faced problem because of .xlb file. Go to C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel as in Option 1 (This path is one level up of XLSTART) and change the extension of .xlb file(s) to omething else say .xlb1. Close Excel and restart Excel again. Your old .xlb file will be there in the folder so that in case you need it in future.

Option 3 - One user reported - I was also having this intermitttent issue and I found out that it is related to the Explorer preview pane. It only occurs if the preview pane is open and the xls file was never selected. Double clicking on the xls file opens 2 instances of excel (one empty). The second instance is probably the one used to show the file in the preview pane. Once the file have been seen at least once in the preview pane(during the current session)  the issue does not occurs, anymore (until reboot and/or some time has elapse. I guess there is some sort of caching). TURN OFF THE PREVIEW PANE IN WINDOWS EXPLORER. If the preview pane is a must, you can right click and 'open' the document and not get the issue.

Option 4 - Look if in recent past, you had installed any Add-In. Disable that and see. To disable, File > Options > Add-Ins and you can manage Add-ins here. - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/why-cant-i-start-my-office-2013-application-HA104011864.aspx

Option 5 - How to troubleshoot start up problems - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280504/en-us

Option 6 - How to prevent files from opening automatically in Excel - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826922/en-us

Option 7 - Login to Windows with a new user profile and run Excel.

Tell you what, I am NOT reinstalling my video drivers unless MS pays me to do so. I am pretty displeased with Office 2013, especially regarding its display degradation. Text in all Office programs is now very hard to read, even after going through the Clear Type routine. No improvement. 

Anyway, to this issue, I have tried all of the above solutions. Nothing changes. I now have blank screens even when opening a new document. 

I tried to find the "Event Viewer" function that Srinivasu describes, but I don't seem to be able to from Word, if that's what his post meant. What does he mean by "home screen"? I tried from a blank document and from the "Info" screen but nothing happens there.

However, I found Event Viewer the old fashioned way, by using Windows Administrative Tools. 

Note: there is no entry called "Microsoft Office applications." It is called "Microsoft Office Alerts."

Anyway, there are no error logs, just Information logs. This is the most recent one on the list (modified for privacy), which refers to my trying to open a file from a shortcut for a file that was moved. After that Event, I found the file manually, and that's when I was presented with a blank screen again: 

"

Microsoft Excel

Sorry, we couldn't find R:\User\Documents\Dropbox\XXX\POEMS\Writing Business\Submissions Contests Grants\Poetry Journals deadlines notes_G.xlsx. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?

P1: 100202

P2: 15.0.4631.1000

P3: 

P4: 

"

Please help. I need to get to work.

I've got one solution.  I'm using Excel 2013.  When I opened .xlsx files the main Excel grid was white (or grey).  Everything else in the Excel window was visible and usable except the actual cells of the worksheet.  Each cell still had it's content, it just wasn't visible.  If I would change the size of the Excel window by clicking the restore button the cell contents would then appear.  I solved the problem by replacing my video driver.  My video card was an ATI (AMD) 5700 HD chipset.  I had previously loaded the latest AMD (ATI) drivers along with all of the associated 'Catalyst' software.  I completely uninstalled all of this software.  Please note to do this you need to use the AMD uninstall utility that you can find in the Programs app in the Control Panel.  I then restarted my computer and let Windows locate the driver for the video card.  This driver, although not the latest, was probably the best, and certified by Microsoft.  Once I did this, Excel worked fine.  Moral of the story:  Don't feel  you need to get the 'latest and greatest' video drivers for your aging ATI (AMD) video chipset!