‘Cannot Quit Excel’ ??!!! (WinNT4, XL97)

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I’ve just found something really weird – I was working in Excel and, having finished, went to close it down … and it refused. No message to say why, what was wrong, nothing – just an information box saying “Cannot quit Excel” and an OK button.

I’ve closed everything that was open (including my hidden personal.xls), checked there are no macros still running, and tried all the different ways (X in the corner, File-Exit, etc) … but it just refuses to shut down!

I’m going to have to use the Task Manager to do it in a minute if I can’t find out why, but I just wondered if anyone had any bright ideas or previous experience of this?

TIA

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Since you’ve already closed all workbooks, using Task Manager to close down Excel is probably the best (and perhaps only) thing you can do. It’s often impossible to find out what exactly causes a problem like this.

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I found a reference to a similar problem when using XL 2000, it may also apply to XL97
XL2000: “Cannot Quit EXCEL.EXE” and Can’t Log Off from Windows NT If Excel File Open in Internet Explorer

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Thanks for the reference, but I hadn’t actually tried to log off, just close Excel!

In fact, even when I used the task list to kill it, the first time I clicked ‘End Task’ it just came up with the ‘Cannot quit Microsoft Excel’ message again – but the next time I got the standard ‘it can’t respond’ message and was able to say ‘End Now’.

Weird, though – I’d love to know what caused it!

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The short answer: AFAIK the only thing that cures this issue is more RAM. HTH Edit: That means more RAM before you start. Once you’re into the realm of closing down all other running applications, it’s too late.

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That’s interesting, Unkamunka – running programs at the time, besides Excel, were Word, Outlook and IE, and the machine has 256Mb RAM – is that combination really enough to cause the problem? I must admit I didn’t think they would be, but maybe …!

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As said by others, it’s an unusual problem. Based on past experience (& your configuration), I would have thought that mix of programs would have not given you enough leeway. I suspect it’s some kind of interaction with the “plumbing” of Windows itself. Let’s hope that your forthcoming upgrade (if I remember rightly) will put an end to this issue.

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Amen to that! However, I’ve been using this configuration for several years and it’s never happened before … still, the upgrade won’t actually solve much; the “users” are being moved exclusively to our new Citrix environment, with Windows 2000 (I think) and Office 2003, but those of who use non-standard programs (basically, IT Developers!) are merely having access to the environment made available through a browser window, whilst keeping the existing system as a ‘working environment’.

Ain’t life grand?!

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