XL97: "Out of Virtual Memory" Opening Many Workbooks with ActiveX or OCX Controls

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

If you open and close a large number of workbooks, a slowdown in computer performance and "out of virtual memory" messages can occur. Eventually, if left to continue, the program may stop responding (hang) or generate various errors. The amount of time before errors occur depends on the amount of memory available and the amount of memory the controls on each workbook use.

CAUSE

When opening a workbook that contains an ActiveX/OCX control, the Excel process acquires a minimum of 20 private bytes. It does not release this memory when it closes a workbook, but only releases it when the Excel process ends. The amount of the private byte leak can be greater, depending on which ActiveX/OCX control(s) you use in a workbook. You can observe this behavior within Windows NT Performance Monitor or other similar tool.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

   Date      Time    Version     Size       File name     Platform
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   6/3/99    4:02PM  8.0.1.6603  5,615,376  Excel.exe     INTEL x86
   5/18/99   4:30PM  8.2.0.6514     18,944  Scanload.dll  INTEL x86 

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug