I have a Dell 233 running under Windows 98. I now have a major problem when running Excel 97. I recently developed a small spreadsheet to analyse vehicle fuel usage and cost for each month of the year. It seems to run slow when entering data even though I am not doing any calculations at that time but the real problem is that after a relatively short time a message appears ‘Not enough memory’, ‘Not enough resources’ or just ‘Not enough’. The system freezes and CTL+ALT+DEL does not work most times so I have to bomb out. The file size is only 29.5kb and yet another spreadsheet (created some time ago) of 243kb causes no problems. The only reference I can find to this problem is in PC World Hints June 1998 that suggested the removing any files in XLSTART directory (there are none) and check the alternate start-up file location field in ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Options’, ‘General’ tab (nothing there). Any ideas?

This is a much more complex question than I first thought. I have been doing some searching on the internet for you and have found numerous possible solutions to your problem. I suggest you start with the easiest fixes (that are most likely to fix your problem) before trying those which are more complex. This is how I have listed the possible solutions. Firstly, reboot your computer just before you want to open the Excel document. This should free up a lot of RAM. Secondly, terminate all non-essential applications running in the system tray and in the background (you can check/terminate background programs by hitting CTRL-ALT-DEL). Thirdly, make sure that the zoom in Excel is set at 100% exactly. Fourthly, have a look at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q165/9/85.ASP to see if you are running a printer driver which Office 97 doesn’t like (and may give you the ‘Out of Memory’ error for your troubles). Fifthly, have a look at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q168/6/50.asp (although this concerns inserting charts into Excel it may still be relevant for you). Sorry that I couldn’t go into much detail about each of these solutions but if you need more assistance please let me know (there are some more possible solutions to your problem but too many to list here in one go).