Excel lockup

[tortoise]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Purchased and installed new 2008 for a new MacPro because the old 2004 version was buggy and slow on the new intel based Leopard. Very pleased with the results on Entourage, runs better than I have ever seen Entourage run. However a new issue has developed with Excel: working along and suddenly get a dialog box stating:

"Microsoft Excel cannot save AutoRecover info to MacPro:Users:daleocuments:Microsoft User Data:Office 2008 AutoRecovery:,

Once this dialog box appears it does not respond to either button (OK or Do not show this dialog again for this session. The only way out is to force quit the application and reopen it. When it reopens it restores the previous state of the open spreadsheet and there are no questions about restore from autosaves that i am accustomed to seeing. I have booted to safe mode, repaired permissions, trashed the Excel .plist file and allowed new one to be created but no joy there either. Also checked and the AutoRecovery folder is located where it belongs in the MS user data folder in Documents folder and is of course empty. Examining the consol logs and crash reports most of what I see has been mentioned in other quires in this forum as safe to ignore and of no bearing on this issue. I will copy and paste some of them below to assist anyone trying to help me. The only thing in noticed that caught my eye was the colon and comma at the end of the previously mentioned dialog box

Purchased and installed new 2008 for a new MacPro because the old 2004 version was buggy and slow on the new intel based Leopard. Very pleased with the results on Entourage, runs better than I have ever seen Entourage run. However a new issue has developed with Excel: working along and suddenly get a dialog box stating:

"Microsoft Excel cannot save AutoRecover info to MacPro:Users:daleocuments:Microsoft User Data:Office 2008 AutoRecovery:,

seems a bit strange suggesting a incorrect path somehow? I will be glad to post any additional information as requested. Am going to do a full removal of office and fresh install as next step and look forward to any suggestions from the volunteers that donate their valuable time to this forum.

Common errors repeating in the console log pasted below: thanks in advance for any assistance.


2/18/09 9:24:28 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:24:28 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: doClip: empty path.
2/18/09 9:24:28 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:24:28 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: doClip: empty path.
2/18/09 9:33:38 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:33:38 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:33:38 AM mdworker[257] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2/18/09 9:34:54 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:34:54 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:44:43 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:44:43 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:44:46 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:44:46 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:45:31 AM mdworker[257] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2/18/09 9:46:05 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:46:05 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:51:49 AM mdworker[257] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2/18/09 9:51:52 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:51:52

 

[CyberTaz]

The two things you don't mention are your update levels of Office and OS X
which should be at 12.1.5 & 10.5.6 respectively. Reinstalling Office is
rarely a solution and does absolutely nothing constructive, especially if you
don't use the Remove Office utility first and reapply the updates after
reinstalling. Once everything is fully updated repair permissions & restart
the Mac.

Once that's accomplished check in Excel's Preferences> Save to make sure the
path to the location for AutoRecover Data hasn't been modified.

If the problem continues try running Excel from a different/new User Account
to see if the problem exists there.

HTH |
Bob Jones
MVP Office:Mac

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Purchased and installed new 2008 for a new MacPro because the old 2004 version was buggy and slow on the new intel based Leopard. Very pleased with the results on Entourage, runs better than I have ever seen Entourage run. However a new issue has developed with Excel: working along and suddenly get a dialog box stating:

"Microsoft Excel cannot save AutoRecover info to MacPro:Users:daleocuments:Microsoft User Data:Office 2008 AutoRecovery:,

Once this dialog box appears it does not respond to either button (OK or Do not show this dialog again for this session. The only way out is to force quit the application and reopen it. When it reopens it restores the previous state of the open spreadsheet and there are no questions about restore from autosaves that i am accustomed to seeing. I have booted to safe mode, repaired permissions, trashed the Excel .plist file and allowed new one to be created but no joy there either. Also checked and the AutoRecovery folder is located where it belongs in the MS user data folder in Documents folder and is of course empty. Examining the consol logs and crash reports most of what I see has been mentioned in other quires in this forum as safe to ignore and of no bearing on this issue. I will copy and paste some of them below to assist anyone trying to help me. The only thing in noticed that caught my eye was the colon and comma at the end of the previously mentioned dialog box

Purchased and installed new 2008 for a new MacPro because the old 2004 version was buggy and slow on the new intel based Leopard. Very pleased with the results on Entourage, runs better than I have ever seen Entourage run. However a new issue has developed with Excel: working along and suddenly get a dialog box stating:

"Microsoft Excel cannot save AutoRecover info to MacPro:Users:daleocuments:Microsoft User Data:Office 2008 AutoRecovery:,

seems a bit strange suggesting a incorrect path somehow? I will be glad to post any additional information as requested. Am going to do a full removal of office and fresh install as next step and look forward to any suggestions from the volunteers that donate their valuable time to this forum.

Common errors repeating in the console log pasted below: thanks in advance for any assistance.


2/18/09 9:24:28 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:24:28 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: doClip: empty path.
2/18/09 9:24:28 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:24:28 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: doClip: empty path.
2/18/09 9:33:38 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:33:38 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:33:38 AM mdworker[257] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2/18/09 9:34:54 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:34:54 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:44:43 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:44:43 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:44:46 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:44:46 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:45:31 AM mdworker[257] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2/18/09 9:46:05 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:46:05 chuck-knuths-mac-pro.local Microsoft Excel[249] <Error>: CGBitmapContextGetData: invalid context
2/18/09 9:51:49 AM mdworker[257] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
2/18/09 9:51:52 AM [0x0-0x1e01e].com.microsoft.Excel[249] Wed Feb 18 09:51:52

 

[tortoise]

Hi Bob, thanks for the quick reply, sorry I overlooked the versions and yes system is at Leopard 10-5-6 and office has the latest 12.1.5. I will try your suggestions and report back.

 

[tortoise]

Once that's accomplished check in Excel's Preferences> Save to make sure the

path to the location for AutoRecover Data hasn't been modified.

If the problem continues try running Excel from a different/new User Account
to see if the problem exists there.

Hi again Bob, I suspect as you mentioned a faulty path but guess what there is nowhere in Excel preferences that I am able to find where one can view the assigned path to the autorecover folder or for that matter change it. Can you shed any light on that issue?

 

[CyberTaz]

My mistake - I wasn't at a Mac at the time & misremembered. Word has that
setting but Excel doesn't... Sorry :-}

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[tortoise]

Thanks again for the help Bob. Just on the off chance that the path used by Word for AutoRecover is universal and carries over to Excel I will try remapping to the correct folder but figure that is a long shot. Next option will be to turn off AutoRecover for now and perhaps submit a ticket to MS for help. I fear it may come down to dabbling in command line in the Unix directory underpinnings to verify and if needed correct the path and I am loath to get into all of that.