Excel almost freezes on F1 : very slow launch of Help

[Tim Richardson]

Recently, Excel takes about twenty seconds to launch help after I
press F1.
I am using Windows XP. I have always disabled the Office Assistant.
The CPU load is intense; all other applications are unusable while
help launches. I have only noticed this problem for around a week; I
do not know what I changed that could affect this. Are there any XP
services that are relevant? It affects other Office applications also.
Once help is launched the first time, it is as fast as usual.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have a guess, but you may want to post the version of excel that you're
using.

 

[Tim Richardson]

I don't have a guess, but you may want to post the version of excel that you're
using.

It is Excel 2000 SP 3

 

[Dave Peterson]

I still don't have a guess.

I don't recall seeing anything about help here, but I haven't looked in awhile:

The first is by Charles Williams and the second by David McRitchie:

http://www.decisionmodels.com
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/slowresp.htm

(But don't get your hopes up.)

Could it be some setting in winxp that's causing the trouble. Maybe a trip down
the road to ask the winxp newsgroup would be beneficial.