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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

Reply
61 replies

Sep 2, 2009 7:23 AM in response to WD Stephens

I too am having this problem, except that when Excel crashes for me it takes me to the Login screen. This must be fixed, the keystroke problem that was endemic under 10.5 was enough of a hassle, but this is ridiculous.

Numbers is not an adequate replacement for Excel, it just doesn't have enough of the power user features....aside from the interface being rather "clunky" for anyone trying to convert.

Sep 2, 2009 12:55 PM in response to WD Stephens

Me too. And iCal doesn't work properly either. I assume that it's because excel 2004 is not a native intel program but Apple are beginning to really annoy me. These are serious problems for professional people - excel and the PIM - I can't believe that they have released such a major upgrade without proper testing. Perhaps they just don't care anymore

Sep 3, 2009 10:35 AM in response to WD Stephens

Yes, I'm seeing this as well.

I'm a power user in excel. Have always been a bit frustrated when using it on my mac vs. my desktop windows pc. (I have both platforms on my desk at work.) I've been forced to copy files from my mac to my windows pc so I can get work done.

Apple, this is really bad. I run technology at my company and am the strongest Mac advocate. The implications are fairly obvious.

Sep 4, 2009 2:52 PM in response to Jeremy M. Zander

I had the problem where Excel would crash to the blue screen (since updating to SL) after enter a few cells worth of data. Using Font Book, I discovered there were copies of the Wingbats font and a "normal" and "regular" copy of the Tahoma font, which Font Book flagged as errors. I deleted the extra copies and so far, Excel has not crashed since.

Sep 5, 2009 8:27 AM in response to WD Stephens

Well, I've got good news (sort of) and bad news (lots of it).

The good news is that this is a known problem. Many bugs have been reported to Apple (here is a public site with one):
http://openradar.appspot.com/6423987

Also, a good description of the problem is here:
http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2009/03/11/data-loss-through-windowserver-crashes -in-leopard

The bad news is this problem has been around for a long time - at least two years - and its related to Rosetta (the technology that lets you run PPC apps on Intel). If Apple was going to fix it, they probably would have by now, and since Rosetta will almost certainly disappear in 10.7, it sure seems unlikely.

I have found no workaround or cause. Funny, for me, I've used Eudora for decades and never had a Window Server crash. Now I get them twice a day. For sure, I changed something, but I don't know what. If I ever do figure it out I'll post here. It happens to me using my MacBook Pro in closed lid with external keyboard and monitor as well as with it in "laptop" mode.

What can you do? Well, get a free apple developer account, then use bugreporter.apple.com and enter a bug report, and dup it to the number you see in the link above. That, or if you happen to be personal friends with Steve Jobs, you could ask him to prod development. Failing that, upgrade Excel to an Intel version. The Eudora community has no such option 😟

David

Sep 7, 2009 5:43 PM in response to WD Stephens

This is happening for me too. Simply entering text in a worksheet cell can cause the whole OS to crash and put me back to the login screen. It's happened about 8 times today.

Very annoying! Contemplating going to get Office 2008 just because of this.

Do you guys think that's the way to go? Or could it be a config setting, and something messed up with Rosetta?

Thanks,
Erik

Sep 8, 2009 5:22 PM in response to Hbarber

Firstly, I don't think it is fair to blame Apple for a 5 year old third party application misbehaving. Surely it's up to Microsoft to test their own software and make users aware of issues and solutions.

Office 2004 (Word and Excel) work normally for me. Below is the process I followed. Hopefully the solution is fairly straight forward for most people, if perhaps a little cumbersome if you have to go the 'start from scratch' route I did.

My upgrade from Leopard to SL didn't go happily, so I did a clean install of SL and restored the user accounts from my Time Machine overnight.

I then set about reinstalling and updating my software (always a frustratingly long and tedious process for Adobe CS2... urgh!). Anyway, Office 2004 would not allow a custom install, hanging at the registration screen where you put in your name, address, phone etc (the screen after you click "I Agree") so I did the drag and drop install instead. Upon launching Word or Excel, once again it would hang at the same screen.

Solution

I downloaded the latest update (dated June 2009) for Office 2004 from the Microsoft Mactopia site, ran the updater and then launched one of the Office apps (Word). This time the registration progressed normally and the application launched without issue.
I've done some limited testing of different functions in Excel and Word 2004 (the only Office apps I use) opening existing and creating new documents, editing, saving and closing them without issue. In fact, the MS Office apps seem much more snappy.

You mightn't need to do a clean install of either SL or Office 2004, try installing the update first. If that doesn't work, try doing a clean install of Office 2004 and then the update.

I hope this helps.

Sep 9, 2009 6:46 PM in response to WD Stephens

I posted earlier on how this probably relates to the Eudora problem I'm having. Well, I've got a lot more information. It seems it happens with several Carbon apps. Please note that Apple did NOT disable Carbon apps - they are still suppose to run. What I've found is a way to detect the symptom, but not offer a cure.

Most of the crashes to date have occurred in a routine called UCKeyTranslate. Anyone can with ease determine if this is where your crash occurred. When you get the blue screen, open the Console App (in Utilities), make sure you have the list of files to examine on the left (Make sure toolbar button "Show Log List" is clicked on. Open the "System Diagnostic Reports" list, and see if there is a WIndowServer... entry at the bottom - if so click on it. About to lines down you should see something like this:

Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x00007fff8735d2a6 UCKeyTranslate + 464

The first line after "Crashed" is the key - here you can see the UCKeyTranslate. Now, I know this is where the windowserver crashed.

If you see that. now click on system.log - its under the FILES container in the left list. In the search field enter UCKeyTranslate - if you see many entries, then you have this Carbon problem. I have a friend who runs the same app with no problem, so no idea what is different on my system. However, what I did was a fresh Snow Leopard install on a new partition, then I used Migration Assistant to move my apps from the Leopard partition to Snow Leopard.

I'm an old time UNIX programmer, so what I did was write a small shell program to monitor system.log all the time, and to beep when this UCKeyTranslate error happens - so I can try and figure out what I do that is causing it. Unfortunately, it happens at random times and with no apparent pattern. But do note that I've gotten Excel 2004 and TextWrangler to cause these errors in addition to Eudora (which I use all the time). I infer from this that the problem is Carbon related, not Rosetta.

I'm not sure how fonts could be related to this, but for sure they could be.

If you're having blue screens with Excel, look at the cause, and help interested parties determine if its this or some other persistent error causing the crashes.

Sep 11, 2009 11:27 PM in response to WD Stephens

Apologies in advance if my comment isn't 'helpful', but I took a philosophical approach to Office 2004 when I upgraded to SL. I had it on my home machines, but would never categorise myself as a power user even at work (XP and Office 2007). Have been using Numbers at home quite happily for my very modest spreadsheeting requirements (e.g. plotting the frequency of egg laying for our hens having extracted the source data from an iPhone Bento database).

I bought the student and teacher edition of Office 2004 when it came out for $100 so it's cost me <$2 month for it's lifetime to date and I felt that was a reasonable ROI. So when upgrading to SL I decided not to install Rosetta and have put MS Office behind me for ever (at least at home).

Whilst my sympathies are with those of you struggling with technical problems, part of me is thinking that it makes sense for you to make a decision about whether you really need Excel, and if you do, buy a current copy.

My partner is not yet convinced she can live free from MS Office, but I have said that if she wants to run it, to go out and buy her own computer to install it on.

Good luck.

S

Excel 2004 continually crashes OS 10.6

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