Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

WD Stephens Author

Level 1

0 points

Excel 2004 continually crashes OS 10.6

On 9 separate occasions, Excel has crashed my MacBook Pro running 10.6. The crashes have occurred when simply entering data. The screen goes blue for a second and then returns to my desktop with all applications closed. The dialogue box that typical appears after a crash is not triggered. However, in the console under Diagnostic Information --> System Diagnostic Reports. The issue seems to be related to WindowServer process. A portion of the log output is below. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Process: WindowServer [1920]
Path: /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/WindowServer
Identifier: WindowServer
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]

Date/Time: 2009-08-31 15:23:07.863 -0700
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC BADACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN INVALIDADDRESS at 0x00000001918a6860
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x00007fff87d732a6 UCKeyTranslate + 464
1 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82c32d79 CGSUniCodeForKeyAndFlags + 161
2 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82ca888b CGXCheckForHotKey + 3184
3 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b180b9 sPostContinuation + 1808
4 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b612a2 postAfterTapID + 277
5 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b17149 CGXFilterEvent + 88
6 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b175b3 CGXProcessHIDEvent + 164
7 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b1739c sHIDContinuation + 528
8 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b1713a CGXFilterEvent + 73
9 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b16ee5 CGXGetNextEvent + 133
10 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b16e48 CGXRunOneEventPass + 36
11 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b19758 eventNotificationHandler + 80
12 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b196c1 CGXPostPortData + 175
13 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b194cb CGXRunOneServerPass + 451
14 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b167e6 CGXRunOneServicesPass + 357
15 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82b1f3ea CGXServerLoop + 139
16 com.apple.CoreGraphics 0x00007fff82aeabd6 CGXGetRootAdminCredentials + 0
17 WindowServer 0x0000000100000f29 main + 9
18 WindowServer 0x0000000100000f18 start + 52

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Aug 31, 2009 3:37 PM

61 replies

Oct 25, 2009 3:33 AM in response to Mickael Lesoeur-Behn

I just had the same crash, running Safari in the foreground, and the old PowerPC AOL client in the background. I was on a message board forum in Safari and I think I tried to save my post when I went to a blue screen, then back to the Login screen.

First time that has ever happened. The crash log is the same as the one posted, regarding Windowserver, not a specific application.

Oct 25, 2009 2:19 PM in response to Patrick Houlihan

That doesn't necessarily mean it isn't fonts, you may still find some fonts that "passed" are problems, I had to check and eliminate some manually. Sorry I don't remember the culprits I think they were third party. It's not a fun process.

Crul

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2009 5:18 AM in response to Dave Robertson2

That's why I said, unless you are a Font monger, I would rip out all the fonts under your profile, and all the other profiles. Then, go through the main /Library ( not the library under your profile but the /Library and make sure no fonts have a number after them. I think I had wingding2 and wingding3 in that location. D

Oct 26, 2009 6:31 AM in response to Crul

Wingdings, Wingdings 2, and Wingdings 3 on all the Macs at my home and work are separate fonts, not duplicates.

Oct 26, 2009 11:12 AM in response to Patrick Houlihan

yes they can be (not saying they are), but they are older fonts that are not to the latest standard i believe.Since office 2004 uses older fonts from i suspect per 2004. These fonts in turn can affect all sorts of other apps making reference to those fonts.
I remember Beta test MacOS 8 and the fonts had cause non stop issues with the interface, apps and stable use of OS8.
Fonts seem like nothing but effect pretty much everything we see and do in a computer.
Personally i think its fonts and windowsServer on OSx both have issues currently.

Oct 26, 2009 11:59 AM in response to Mickael Lesoeur-Behn

Anecdotally the windowserver errors seem to be tolerated in other apps once the fonts are sorted out.

Message was edited by: Dave Robertson2

Oct 27, 2009 10:00 AM in response to Dave Robertson2

OKay im still getting reports from my users today that the font issue has really solved it. They are getting more log outs today then usual. They have asked me to downgrade them. Which is a real pain to downgrade 5 Snow leopard machines to leopard. Removing the second screen doesn't seem to be an option so i'm a bit stuck hoping that apple will release something before i have to do the downgrade.
should i remove all user account fonts ? and just leave the fonts from the system ?
remember these machine are stock loaded. just snow leopard and Office 2004, no other software. so it can only be the fonts from office 2004 installed.
any ideas.

Oct 27, 2009 1:33 PM in response to WD Stephens

I too have experienced the EXCEL 2004 crashes with Snow Leopard. Started immediately after upgrading MacBook Pro to SL and applying 10.6.1 patch. Not directly tied to any single action, but almost always follows a keystroke in EXCEL. Never occurred in Leopard (10.5.x), and definitely linked to 10.6.x. Crash symptoms (always the same): processing halts for several seconds, screen goes to plain blue, then the login screen appears, requiring a re-login. All processes are lost. See same diagnostic report as WD Stephens. Am convinced based on circumstances that this is due to some change in Rosetta in 10.6. Apple needs to address this, because EXCEL 2008 is not currently an option for those of us that use VBA macros. Here's hoping for a patch to allow me to move to SL and keep using EXCEL with macros.

Oct 28, 2009 6:07 AM in response to WD Stephens

My Mac Pro Intel Xeon is logging out also when using Excel 2004. For me it crashes after I leave excel for a few minutes to multitask in another program. When I come back and add a row in excel or start typing in excel it crashes. I get the blue screen and then the log on. I have not tried disabling unused fonts but I will tonight.

Pattoo

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2009 9:41 AM in response to WD Stephens

I have upgrade to Snow Leopard. First time I tried to open an Excel file (I have Office 2004 for Mac installed) I was greeted with a prompt to install Rosetta to open Excel. I installed Rosetta and opened Excel but I have no print data in the file . What I do have is the color high lights I have added to the document but no data in the cells. Any idea how I might get this back?
Thanks
-pat

Oct 28, 2009 1:57 PM in response to Pattoo

I reverted back to Leopard two days after (upgrading?) to SL because both Excel and Word were logging me out. But it hasn't solved the problem. I now get log-outs with Excel and Word under 10.5.8!

To restore Leopard I had to re-format my MacBook Pro's HD and copy the whole disk back from my last Time Machine backup before the U/G. In the process I created two partitions, one 100GB for OS 10.5.8 and any apps and utilities that need to be on the same disk, and another 380GB for a clean SL installation (which I'm not using till this mess is fixed) plus a 'main' Applications folder, images, music and FCP files.

I don't care what's causing this, it's an OS problem plain and simple. If reverting to 10.5.8 had worked I'd be happy, but now that it's crashing too, I may have to try 7 in desperation. They say it just works.

Pattoo

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2009 2:42 PM in response to Don Hutcheson

In the mean time I just downloaded and installed Open Office which seems to work quite well for the minimal Excel files I have.

Oct 30, 2009 9:09 AM in response to Pattoo

Okay this is what i got so far.
I downgraded to leopard with fresh installs. and now excel 2004 wont log out but we do get the typing cell pause issue. and its seems to be the same machines that had the logout issue.
- My MacBook Pro Unibody (1st gen) doesn't suffer from either problem.
- the Unibody 13.3 and macbook pro 15.5 aluBook 2008 seems to all have this issue. on both the leopard pause issue and logout issue in Snow Leopard.

I have kept one Unibody SL running Excel 2004 to test out possible cures and so it seems that it still has the logout issue even after all the fonts have been removed from the USER account.
If the computer starts suffering to 3 minutes logout pattern and reboot of the computer seems to clear out the issue for a few hours.
- please note - Set your Excel to Autosave every minute to 2 minutes to avoid too much loss of data, that seems to have helped us losing any major work.

I have done a reinstall of Rosetta to no effect to the issue.

The last thing i have to test is removing the Second monitor but my users are unwilling to do that. they would rather have logouts then loss of the external monitor.

Thats as far as i can go. Snow leopard can no longer be installed on all the machines until a solution or patch is found for this issue.
Office 2008 isn't an option because everyone here hates it, because its slow and the interface is lousy (their words not mine).

AI also agree that openoffice is really good and for light users a prefect solution. It has currently no issues i can see and if their version of excel gets better i dont see why i wouldn't make it company policy to use Openoffice only and Thunderbird or apple MAIL for emails.
No point spending money for headaches when you can get pain relief for free.

steinm

Level 1

8 points

Nov 14, 2009 12:19 PM in response to oliverPSU

Having exactly the same problem with Excel and ShrinkRapt. Have switched to numbers which eliminates the excel problem and do lots of backups with Shrinkrapt which means closing and reopening. If there is an answer let me know!
Thanks

Jan 12, 2010 3:55 PM in response to StreetScience

If you run tech at your company you should then also be aware that the problems are in the implementation of Office not the OS.

Excel 2004 continually crashes OS 10.6