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?

Raju hello again, since last time I wrote here I followed your advice but also moved to a 64 bit system - the problem hasn't occurred again (yet). I obviously can't tell which of the changes is responsible for the improvement, but anyway thank you and the forum.

Hello Raju, I have the same problem and tried the following. I followed your advice with Clean boot, did not help. My computer is not connected to any AD at this time. I work from home and do not use any VPN. I only have wifi internet accesss. I have my Excel files on C:\temp Thank you

Raju hello, The same problem has been happening to me without any graphics at all. I work on one file or a few, I do some simple calculations, and at some point I notice everything is moving slowly (up to 20-30 seconds delay between my clicks and the screen) and EXCEL is using more than 50% of the CPU. using the same or similar files in excel 2010 never created the problem. So far I haven't found too much in common between situations of this occurring. Personally this makes work with 2013 seriously problematic - if there's no solution I'll be re-installing my 2010 version... Hello Eli, Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting your query. Is the computer connected to a domain network? To avoid the repetition of same steps provide us the troubleshooting steps you have tried to resolve this issue. In the mean while you may disable hardware acceleration by following the steps below and verify the status. · Open the Excel program. · Click on file , Options. · Go to the Advanced tab. · Under the Display section, check the box for 'Disable hardware graphics acceleration'. · Click OK. I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance. Thank you.

Raju hello, The same problem has been happening to me without any graphics at all. I work on one file or a few, I do some simple calculations, and at some point I notice everything is moving slowly (up to 20-30 seconds delay between my clicks and the screen) and EXCEL is using more than 50% of the CPU. using the same or similar files in excel 2010 never created the problem. So far I haven't found too much in common between situations of this occurring. Personally this makes work with 2013 seriously problematic - if there's no solution I'll be re-installing my 2010 version...

Hello, Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting your query. Few more details would help us to provide a better response. Since when are you facing this issue? Is the computer connected to a domain network? Do you find the issue with a specific Excel file or with all Excel files? In the mean while you may start the computer in clean boot mode and then try to copy paste the data and check if the same issue occurs. Starting the computer in clean boot mode would disable all the non-Microsoft applications and the antivirus which could be one of the reasons for the error. 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. Reply with necessary information to check and help you better. 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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86 answers

Anonymous

2015-05-05T17:37:12+00:00

Raju hello again, since last time I wrote here I followed your advice but also moved to a 64 bit system - the problem hasn't occurred again (yet).

I obviously can't tell which of the changes is responsible for the improvement, but anyway thank you and the forum.
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Anonymous

2015-05-05T15:51:24+00:00

Hello Raju,

I have the same problem and tried the following.

I followed your advice with Clean boot, did not help.

My computer is not connected to any AD at this time. I work from home and do not use any VPN. I only have wifi internet accesss.

I have my Excel files on C:\temp

Thank you
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Anonymous

2015-04-30T12:22:45+00:00

Raju hello,

The same problem has been happening to me without any graphics at all. I work on one file or a few, I do some simple calculations, and at some point I notice everything is moving slowly (up to 20-30 seconds delay between my clicks and the screen) and EXCEL is using more than 50% of the CPU.

using the same or similar files in excel 2010 never created the problem.

So far I haven't found too much in common between situations of this occurring.

Personally this makes work with 2013 seriously problematic - if there's no solution I'll be re-installing my 2010 version...

Hello Eli,

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

Is the computer connected to a domain network?

To avoid the repetition of same steps provide us the troubleshooting steps you have tried to resolve this issue.

In the mean while you may disable hardware acceleration by following the steps below and verify the status.

· Open the Excel program.

· Click on file, Options.

· Go to the Advanced tab.

· Under the Display section, check the boxfor 'Disable hardware graphics acceleration'.

· Click OK.

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

Thank you.
Was this answer helpful?

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Anonymous

2015-04-30T12:09:12+00:00

Raju hello,

The same problem has been happening to me without any graphics at all. I work on one file or a few, I do some simple calculations, and at some point I notice everything is moving slowly (up to 20-30 seconds delay between my clicks and the screen) and EXCEL is using more than 50% of the CPU.

using the same or similar files in excel 2010 never created the problem.

So far I haven't found too much in common between situations of this occurring.

Personally this makes work with 2013 seriously problematic - if there's no solution I'll be re-installing my 2010 version...
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2015-04-30T09:33:32+00:00

Hello,

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

Few more details would help us to provide a better response.

Since when are you facing this issue?

Is the computer connected to a domain network?

Do you find the issue with a specific Excel file or with all Excel files?

In the mean while you may start the computer in clean boot mode and then try to copy paste the data and check if the same issue occurs.

Starting the computer in clean boot mode would disable all the non-Microsoft applications and the antivirus which could be one of the reasons for the error.

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.

Reply with necessary information to check and help you better.

Thank you.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments