Crashes when saving if certain conditions are met

[BenRichards]

Hi, this is my first post. I've worked with Excel/VBA for a few months, and many a times I've searched for help on something and found it here.
I use Excel 2013, and the workbook in question is saved in the 97-03 format. Five sheets as the user opens it. In it is a sheet that has checkboxes, conditional formatting, drop down menus, some VBA code in the back, the usual stuff I guess. There’s a command button with which the user can copy that sheet as a blank, without selections, into another tab, and another command button with which the user can copy the sheet as it is, with the selections. There is another sheet that collects the information from all these copied pages and presents a summary.
This workbook is giving me heartache, as it keeps crashing while saving. At one point when I tried to alter something and save, it would crash. And the save wouldn’t work. It would try to recover it, but to no success. With patience I went back into an earlier version and patiently did those updates, always freaking out when saving. Will it save or not?
At this point I started to get the feeling that the entire workbook was somehow corrupted. But I managed to do the updates I was meaning to.
The current problem is this: Usually when the user has filled in five or six sheets, then tries to save, there’s an error. "Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications."
This workbook isn’t that large. I wouldn’t think that the computer runs out of resources (especially as I’ve tested it while watching the task manager, and CPU resources and memory hardly budge). I have a feeling that something else is doing this.
One thing I’ve found it that the crashing isn’t related to a specific number of sheets. Sometimes I’ve filled six sheets, and then it crashes while saving. Sometimes I’ve filled 15 or 20 and I can save.
I’ve noticed the following, which could give a hint to someone: I mentioned those command buttons. I know when it’s going to crash from those command buttons. They'll freeze. If I fill that one sheet, then press the command button that copies it, and keep doing it, at some point the buttons freeze for a particular sheet. They don’t do anything when I click them. They don’t depress, they are like bricks up there. If I set it in the design mode, I can’t even select those buttons. Dead as bricks. At this point I can still activate one of those other sheets, and there the same buttons will function. I can copy that sheet, probably keep copying from there on. But at that point, it will no longer save properly.
I’ve tried to pinpoint the reason for the crashing by deleting parts of that sheet, but I haven’t been able to single out anything specific. I’ve read that conditional formatting, or pictures, or just about anything could cause a problem. I still don’t think that the workbook is too large or something like that. There’s not that much code, and I’ve worked with similar workbooks that haven’t had problems.
Any thoughts/suggestions are welcome. I’ll be happy to answer questions if you need more information. Thanks! Edit. Each time I copy that one sheet, it adds about 600 KB to the filesize, which is 3,6M to begin with.

 

[BenRichards]

I tried to save it in another format, the top of the list, with macros. It did present a change. It still crashes, but instead of saying Excel is out of resources it tries to repair it, but can't. I've been trying to single out the issue. I made selections to the page, then deleted all the VBA-code except that needed to copy the page. I copied it until it crashed. Next I tried it in the way that I left the code intact, but I deleted all the selections. I deleted every checkbox, even every border line. And when there is nothing there, I can copy the page at will. I made 30 copies and it let me save just fine. On the resources page, which is pretty long in that test, it shows the sections where the information is supposed to be, but every counter is 0 of course. Is my problem that excel can't handle that amount of data, getting it from six or more different sheets? It seems unlikely, as in the page I'm copying there aren't that many selections in the first place. About 140 checkboxes, 30 textboxes, and some 2500 dropdown selections, of which in my tests I've only selected about 200. Then there are counters, in hidden cells, they count how many of certain selections are made so the amounts can be shown on the summary page. Could it be that Excel runs out of resources because of those calculations/gathering data on that summary page? I've looked at the counters with the hope of finding one that is trying to look for something on the entire page or something, but they all are working properly, the range from which they count is defined as it should. I'll try to delete different parts of that copied page next to find out if some area of it makes the problem. Ideas and tips are more than welcome.

 

[BenRichards]

I mentioned that something happens to those command buttons before it crashes when saving. It's as if the design mode is forced on in that sheet. When I put in the password, and try to click those buttons, the cursor turns into a cross. When I press right mouse button, I can't see a selection for the properties of that button. There is an "insert macro" selection.

Does anyone have an idea on what could cause this? I start to copy one sheet, and at some random point something happens, which causes that the last copied page is as if it were in design mode. The checkboxes don't work either, I get a cross cursor on them.

 

[BenRichards]

I just made it crash on purpose to see the if it creates an error report in Windows' event viewer, and it did. Here's the information if it's of any help:

Faulting application name: EXCEL.EXE, version: 15.0.4569.1504, time stamp: 0x52c5e9e1
Faulting module name: EXCEL.EXE, version: 15.0.4569.1504, time stamp: 0x52c5e9e1
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0053d11d
Faulting process id: 0x2fe8
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf60749478706c
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\EXCEL.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\EXCEL.EXE
Report Id: 6005ad92-cc68-11e3-bf41-6c3be52fd4c4