We work on a product that uses Excel, we are now testing all aspects of Excel 2013. During these tests, we seem to have encountered a problem where excel suddenly causes high CPU usage by only drawing some shapes. We have been able to minimize the problem into the following few steps: Open a new, clean workbook Draw an oval, give it a material (right-click, choose “Format Shape”, click “Effects”, “3D Format”, “Material”. Choose any material.) Duplicate the Shape four times, producing Oval2, 3, 4 and 5. Group Oval2 and 3. Group Oval 4 and 5. Press Alt-F10, in the selection window, hide the group containing Oval2 and 3. Deselect everything (!) by clicking in an empty cell. Now observe the task manager. On an I7 Windows 7 PC, Excel now runs 4 cores at around 50%. Also, OnTime functions are not being called anymore because of this rendering bug. Once you select any shape, or un-hide the hidden group, Excel becomes quiet once again. Also, the problem can be prevented from happening by removing the materials in the shapes. This bug (?) seems to happen also on most of our more complicated applications, and it would take lots of work to re-design everything not to use materials. Can anyone confirm this problem, provide a workaround?

The file that I described above is an Excel 2013 workbook (.xlsx) and was created from scratch from the version of Excel I originally reported.

Sean and others hello - I've had this problem occurring in different situations - I think all of them have been in connection with working on Excel files saved in earlier versions of Excel or generated by other programs (eg. SPSS or online survey programs). can anyone corroborate this?

I'm experiencing the same issue as originally reported and that matis77 brings us back to. I have an Excel workbook with two worksheets each with a 5 column by 30 row table. Data from each table is plotted on a chart on separate sheets. Each chart has 4 text boxes added. When I select the sheets with the charts CPU consumption by Excel slowly rises to 100%. When I select the sheets with the data CPU consumption by Excel goes to near zero. Disabling hardware acceleration and clearing the checkbox for Automatically Flash Fill did not resolve the issue for me. I'm using: Excel 2013 (15.0.4753.1003) MSO (15.0.4753.1003) 64 bit Windows 10 Home 64 bit (10.0.10240 Build 10240) with 4 GB RAM Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac Pro Edition ver 11.0.2 (31348) Macbook Pro with Intel Core i7-4960 with 16 GB RAM OS X El Capitan ver 10.11 If I delete the text boxes, save the workbook, close and reopen Excel, I can then select the charts without the CPU consumption problem. The problem doesn't go away until I close and reopen Excel (closing and open workbook doesn't resolve). Going back to the original workbook (with the 4 text box objects on each chart), if I open the workbook in Excel as a partial window, say 1/4 of the full screen, I can select the charts without CPU consumption. If I make the workbook 1/2 the screen (throw the Excel Application to the left) it starts consuming CPU. If I make it 1/4 screen again, no CPU consumption. If I make Excel full screen and select a chart with objects I get 100% CPU consumption. Return to 1/4 screen and I no CPU consumption when a chart with objects is select. That's wiggidy wacked!

I open and close Excel regularly on Win 7 Pro (64-bit) with Office Pro Plus 2010 (32-bit). Mobile Intel Core i5 2467M (Sandy Bridge) Now, as I understand it, Excel doesn't actually fully close out and go away when you exit (no idea why). But when I leave the computer idle (go to lunch) I sometimes find the processor maxed out and cores getting hot with Excel as the high-cpu task (doing nothing? Why doesn't it just close when I close my files?) Aside: I know there are periodic automatic license checks, and occasionally I have to restart an office appliation (like OneNote especially) because the license doesn't validate fast enough or something. Disabling the hardware acceleration may be a work around for the CPU problem. It's not cranking up now, but I will re-post if the problem returns. Otherwise, assume the work-around has been good for me. But I will have to run for a while to make a final judgement. By the way, opening Excel to set the option and then closing it, still leaves Excel running in the background with zero CPU used, but 13 threads hanging around. WTH are those 13 threads doing there?

Hello Raju, Thank you for your response. I'm not shure if we still talking about the same issue as some users were descriping some other problems linked to Copy&Paste. The problem I have faced with Excel 2013 was linked with CPU-Usage is going up to 100% when a graphic is hidden. The steps to re-enact the problem is descriped in the very first entry from iljafiers as following: '- Open a new, clean workbook Draw an oval, give it a material (right-click, choose “Format Shape”, click “Effects”, “3D Format”, “Material”. Choose any material.) Duplicate the Shape four times, producing Oval2, 3, 4 and 5. Group Oval2 and 3. Group Oval 4 and 5. Press Alt-F10, in the selection window, hide the group containing Oval2 and 3. Deselect everything (!) by clicking in an empty cell.' I also tried to disable hardware acceleration without improving results. Thank you.

Excel 2013 High CPU Usage

Anonymous

We work on a product that uses Excel, we are now testing all aspects of Excel 2013. During these tests, we seem to have encountered a problem where excel suddenly causes high CPU usage by only drawing some shapes. We have been able to minimize the problem into the following few steps:

Open a new, clean workbook
Draw an oval, give it a material (right-click, choose “Format Shape”, click “Effects”, “3D Format”, “Material”. Choose any material.)
Duplicate the Shape four times, producing Oval2, 3, 4 and 5.
Group Oval2 and 3. Group Oval 4 and 5.
Press Alt-F10, in the selection window, hide the group containing Oval2 and 3.
Deselect everything (!) by clicking in an empty cell.

Now observe the task manager. On an I7 Windows 7 PC, Excel now runs 4 cores at around 50%. Also, OnTime functions are not being called anymore because of this rendering bug. Once you select any shape, or un-hide the hidden group, Excel becomes quiet once again. Also, the problem can be prevented from happening by removing the materials in the shapes.

This bug (?) seems to happen also on most of our more complicated applications, and it would take lots of work to re-design everything not to use materials. Can anyone confirm this problem, provide a workaround?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

2015-10-14T17:07:48+00:00

The file that I described above is an Excel 2013 workbook (.xlsx) and was created from scratch from the version of Excel I originally reported.
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Anonymous

2015-10-14T06:03:44+00:00

Sean and others hello - I've had this problem occurring in different situations - I think all of them have been in connection with working on Excel files saved in earlier versions of Excel or generated by other programs (eg. SPSS or online survey programs).

can anyone corroborate this?
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Anonymous

2015-10-13T19:20:35+00:00
I'm experiencing the same issue as originally reported and that matis77 brings us back to. I have an Excel workbook with two worksheets each with a 5 column by 30 row table. Data from each table is plotted on a chart on separate sheets. Each chart has 4 text boxes added. When I select the sheets with the charts CPU consumption by Excel slowly rises to 100%. When I select the sheets with the data CPU consumption by Excel goes to near zero.

Disabling hardware acceleration and clearing the checkbox for Automatically Flash Fill did not resolve the issue for me.

I'm using:
- Excel 2013 (15.0.4753.1003) MSO (15.0.4753.1003) 64 bit
- Windows 10 Home 64 bit (10.0.10240 Build 10240) with 4 GB RAM
- Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac Pro Edition ver 11.0.2 (31348)
- Macbook Pro with Intel Core i7-4960 with 16 GB RAM
- OS X El Capitan ver 10.11
If I delete the text boxes, save the workbook, close and reopen Excel, I can then select the charts without the CPU consumption problem. The problem doesn't go away until I close and reopen Excel (closing and open workbook doesn't resolve).

Going back to the original workbook (with the 4 text box objects on each chart), if I open the workbook in Excel as a partial window, say 1/4 of the full screen, I can select the charts without CPU consumption. If I make the workbook 1/2 the screen (throw the Excel Application to the left) it starts consuming CPU. If I make it 1/4 screen again, no CPU consumption. If I make Excel full screen and select a chart with objects I get 100% CPU consumption. Return to 1/4 screen and I no CPU consumption when a chart with objects is select.

That's wiggidy wacked!
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Anonymous

2015-10-08T18:19:44+00:00

I open and close Excel regularly on Win 7 Pro (64-bit) with Office Pro Plus 2010 (32-bit).

Mobile Intel Core i5 2467M (Sandy Bridge)

Now, as I understand it, Excel doesn't actually fully close out and go away when you exit (no idea why).

But when I leave the computer idle (go to lunch) I sometimes find the processor maxed out and cores getting hot with Excel as the high-cpu task (doing nothing? Why doesn't it just close when I close my files?)

Aside: I know there are periodic automatic license checks, and occasionally I have to restart an office appliation (like OneNote especially) because the license doesn't validate fast enough or something.

Disabling the hardware acceleration may be a work around for the CPU problem. It's not cranking up now, but I will re-post if the problem returns. Otherwise, assume the work-around has been good for me. But I will have to run for a while to make a final judgement. By the way, opening Excel to set the option and then closing it, still leaves Excel running in the background with zero CPU used, but 13 threads hanging around. WTH are those 13 threads doing there?
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Anonymous

2015-07-10T07:01:56+00:00
Hello Raju,

Thank you for your response.

I'm not shure if we still talking about the same issue as some users were descriping some other problems linked to Copy&Paste. The problem I have faced with Excel 2013 was linked with CPU-Usage is going up to 100% when a graphic is hidden.

The steps to re-enact the problem is descriped in the very first entry from iljafiers as following:

'- Open a new, clean workbook
- Draw an oval, give it a material (right-click, choose “Format Shape”, click “Effects”, “3D Format”, “Material”. Choose any material.)
- Duplicate the Shape four times, producing Oval2, 3, 4 and 5.
- Group Oval2 and 3. Group Oval 4 and 5.
- Press Alt-F10, in the selection window, hide the group containing Oval2 and 3.
- Deselect everything (!) by clicking in an empty cell.'
I also tried to disable hardware acceleration without improving results.

Thank you.
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