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?

I am having CPU spikes and lock ups for simple tasks such as copy and paste and format painter. Takes at least 10-20 seconds to catch up when hitting ctrl C. Causing some serious productivity issues.

JohnathanRoss1 - if your problem is not related to shapes, I'd suggest asking it as a new question. It would be a totally different situation since it would not involve Excel/Office's graphics engine.

I'm not seeing the problem with Excel 2010: Win 7 Pro (64-bit) with Office 2010 Pro (64-bit) on a system with an older Intel Core2 Quad CPU, Q9650, at 3 GHz, w/4.0 GB RAM. I'll have to wait about 3 hours until I get home to try it on a system with an i7 and Office/Excel 2013 (32-bit). I'll update after checking things out on that system.

This IS REPEATABLE - and seems specific to Excel 2013. System: Intel Core i7-3820 @ 3.60 GHz, 12 GB RAM OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit with SP-1 OFFICE Installations: Office 2003 Pro (32 Bit) Office 2010 Pro Plus (32 Bit) Office 2013 Pro Plus (32 Bit) EXCEL 2013: When I go through your process things seem fine until I move the visible group. At that point CPU usage jumps from 1 or 2% to up around 30%. Task manager confirms it is Excel that is eating up the cycles. If I make the hidden pair visible again, CPU usage again drops to 1 or 2%. Hide them, move the other, and we are back up to steady 30+% usage. The Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration setting does not alter the results in any fashion. EXCEL 2010: Same machine, same setup - same actions: CPU usage never goes up except momentarily when I move the visible group on the sheet. I have no clue what you'd do to work-around it in 2013; it seems to fall into the category of "if it hurts when you do that, don't do that". And I personally would find that an unacceptable answer.

See my post just above this: I believe it's an Excel 2013 (or general Office 2013 Graphics engine? ) problem. Setting for Hardware Graphics acceleration does not affect it. It does not happen instantly when I hide the one grouped pair of ovals, but the instant I move the other pair, CPU goes to about 30% usage and stays there until I unhide the other pair and select a cell on the sheet. Hide the pair again and all seems ok, but move the visible pair and you're back up to Excel hogging 30% of a Quad Core processor.

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

2014-01-08T20:31:38+00:00

I am having CPU spikes and lock ups for simple tasks such as copy and paste and format painter. Takes at least 10-20 seconds to catch up when hitting ctrl C. Causing some serious productivity issues.
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Anonymous

2014-01-08T20:53:32+00:00

JohnathanRoss1 - if your problem is not related to shapes, I'd suggest asking it as a new question. It would be a totally different situation since it would not involve Excel/Office's graphics engine.
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Anonymous

2014-01-08T21:07:51+00:00

I'm not seeing the problem with Excel 2010: Win 7 Pro (64-bit) with Office 2010 Pro (64-bit) on a system with an older Intel Core2 Quad CPU, Q9650, at 3 GHz, w/4.0 GB RAM.

I'll have to wait about 3 hours until I get home to try it on a system with an i7 and Office/Excel 2013 (32-bit). I'll update after checking things out on that system.
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Anonymous

2014-01-09T00:52:29+00:00

This IS REPEATABLE - and seems specific to Excel 2013.

System: Intel Core i7-3820 @ 3.60 GHz, 12 GB RAM

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit with SP-1

OFFICE Installations:

Office 2003 Pro (32 Bit)

Office 2010 Pro Plus (32 Bit)

Office 2013 Pro Plus (32 Bit)

EXCEL 2013: When I go through your process things seem fine until I move the visible group. At that point CPU usage jumps from 1 or 2% to up around 30%. Task manager confirms it is Excel that is eating up the cycles. If I make the hidden pair visible again, CPU usage again drops to 1 or 2%. Hide them, move the other, and we are back up to steady 30+% usage.

The Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration setting does not alter the results in any fashion.

EXCEL 2010: Same machine, same setup - same actions: CPU usage never goes up except momentarily when I move the visible group on the sheet.

I have no clue what you'd do to work-around it in 2013; it seems to fall into the category of "if it hurts when you do that, don't do that". And I personally would find that an unacceptable answer.
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Anonymous

2014-01-09T00:54:56+00:00

See my post just above this: I believe it's an Excel 2013 (or general Office 2013 Graphics engine? ) problem. Setting for Hardware Graphics acceleration does not affect it. It does not happen instantly when I hide the one grouped pair of ovals, but the instant I move the other pair, CPU goes to about 30% usage and stays there until I unhide the other pair and select a cell on the sheet. Hide the pair again and all seems ok, but move the visible pair and you're back up to Excel hogging 30% of a Quad Core processor.
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2 people found this answer helpful.

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