How to isolate cause of "Excel ran out of resources while attempting to calculate..." error

[d0rian]

My file has grown in size to ~30MB, but I've optimized it whenever possible (e.g. hardcoding data after formulas calculate, etc). I used to get this error message -- below -- once every few months, but now I get it nearly every day when running the same VBA that I've used for years. I use Excel 2007. Any tips for figuring out exactly what's causing it? Observations:

• There's no rhyme nor reason for which VBA triggers it (I have ~5 macros that I run one after another...and this error can occur during any of them.)
• I've noticed that when I get this error, I need to close Excel completely and re-open it (after which I can run the macros without problem.) It's not good enough to just close *that particular workbook*...if I do that (while leaving the Excel program open), I'm 100% guaranteed to get the error with the first VBA I run. I need to exit Excel completely and then re-open to stand a chance of running them without error.

 

[rlv01]

Some random suggestions:

Make sure you don't have any other memory hogging programs running. (I'm looking at you, Chrome browser).

Try saving it as an .xlsb file and see if that makes any difference.

Have you tried a code cleaner? VBA accumulates "garbage" over time. Here is an excellent free one:

Excel VBA Code Cleaner Add-in

www.appspro.com

The proviso is that it only works on 32-bit Excel versions. so you should be good to go with Excel 2007. I have a couple of large workbooks w/macros that I have to do this regularly on to keep them happy. I hope I don't need to say that you should run the code cleaner on a copy the first time you use it.

Lastly, and the one you probably don't want to hear, is upgrade to a 64-bit version of Excel which can access a lot more memory, assuming you have it on your PC.​