Custom Sorting crashes Excel

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Our Principal can’t do a custom sort without crashing the computer. Just an A-Z or Z-A sort works fine. Would anyone have a fix for this?

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I can see 3 possibilities:

1. Corrupt Excel file
2. Corrupt Excel installation
3. Something wrong with the operating system

Suggestions for narrowing this down:

[*]Copy the file to another PC. If it still causes a crash then the file is corrupt.
[*]If it doesn’t cause a crash then I’d reinstall Excel – shouldn’t be difficult or destructive.
[*]If the sort worked on another PC and you are still getting a crash after reinstalling Excel then you’ve got something more serious on your hands – a virus, a clash with an update or another package, or a corrupt operating system.

PS Can you say a little more about “crashing the computer” – what exactly happens ? A freeze, a reboot, a blue screen or what ?

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Another thing you could try: Save the file in an older file format, then try to do the sort. The purpose of doing this is to get Excel to do some regeneration and conversion on the file, thereby possibly eliminating the error in the process.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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It crashes on ANY file that she and I have attempted to custom sort–even on a new file with just a few numbers added to do a ‘test’ sort.
I have already uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2010.
By ‘crashes’, I mean it locks up and won’t do anything–although a few times I’ve waited long enough for it to eventually react to a mouse click or something, then locks up again for a long time, etc.

I’ll try the older file format option next time I’m back at the school.

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In the circumstances you describe it doesn’t sound like a corrupt file, but you may as well try the older file format option – nothing to lose :huh:

Talking with chums about this, one said you can get round a similar problem by saving the file as .xlsx so I’d try that too.
Excel may have a defective add-in – instructions for disabling add-ins are here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/enable-or-disable-add-ins-in-office-programs-HA010034127.aspx
I have also read that trying to sort a range which includes data validation can cause Excel to crash.

If none of the above work, you would seem to be getting into general PC/Windows issues, and the obvious possibilities include:

A clash with another package – is there anything else running at the same time, and does it happen in Safe Mode ?
Malware – I’d run a scan with Malwarebytes
Operating system problems – can you do a repair/install ?

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