Apps / Software :: Open Laptop Lid - Screen Momentarily Goes Dark / Excel Cells Greyed Out
Jan 9, 2014
I have a Sony Vaio Pro 13 laptop, running Windows 8.1. If I have a couple of Excel spreadsheets open, close the laptop lid, leave it a minute or so, then re-open the lid, the screen momentarily goes dark, then comes to life again. All open apps are OK with the exception of the Excel sheets. In these, all the cells (& ribbon) are unviewable. The whole worksheet area on the screen is not the normal cells but a screen full of whatever colour I set for the default ribbon colour (some kind of beigy grey...). You can't click on any of the cells, can't see what's in them etc... you CAN close the sheet using the window close x at top right (even though you can't actually see the x) but that's all.
I have set up Windows so that NO ACTION is taken on closing the lid. It seems to be the same problem as described at hibernate - Excel windows invisible when laptop comes back from sleep - Super User but no working solution is available. (The one on this link refers to clicking 'restore' but that doesn't work) Running Excel 2013 (part of Office 2013).
I'm stuck as to what may be causing this... but I guess it should be an Excel problem since other apps (e.g. Word) don't exhibit this problem, but that may be a function of what's open at the time the lid is closed / re-opened?
Windows 8.1 with Excel 2007. On one PC is it ok but not on another PC:
*a file with xls or xlsx suffix doesn't open as the exe-file of Excel is not found. *Excel on it self is starting up and after opening the dedicated xls-suffix the file is visible
In configuration / program's /file type linking with xls to the Excel program isn't seen
The doc-suffix is correctly linked to Word 2007...
I have been having trouble with the WiFi connection on my laptop for quite a while now. It used to be that it would simply disconnect from wifi for now apparent reason, but I changed a few settings and now that seems to be resolved for the most part. I have a new problem though. The wifi tends to disconnect for just a couple of seconds occasionally, and then fix itself. It wouldn't be a problem, but the interrupt is usually enough to kill my Skype calls (which I do a lot of) or any VPN connections I am on (which I also do a lot of). What would cause a momentary interruption in wifi?
The screen keep blacking out for a second or two. It isn't the monitor or hardware because this NEVER happens when I'm on the Metro Apps page. - Bizarre. I've been through to Task Manager and tried to cull everything that didn't look necessary. Didn't work. I've even done a "Restore" - no success either. The blanking seems more frequent when I start using the computer and after about 1/2 hr on occurs occasionally. I stress that there is never, ever any blanking if I either go to the Metro Apps desktop page or a metro app itself.
Downloaded this AM to 8.1 from Win 8. Have an old Gateway laptop, can't afford to get new even though I need one. The display is very dark - it was fine with Win 8. Is there some setting I need to change - can't find any way to make it brighter. Like I said, it was fine before & I didn't change any settings myself.
I recently changed to windows 8, there's a problem with my graphic card (I think). I play the lord of the rings online, and when I try to launch it, as soon as it goes into full screen, the whole screen gets dark bluish (not BSOD). When thah happens the screen stays that way even if I close lotro and the only way it goes back to normal is by rebooting.
Here's a screenshot with my system specs: [url].....
P.S. I have tried updating my video card driver, it says it's up to date... the version is WDDM v1.1
I am running Excel 2007 and have been working on files and ONLY saving them to my USB memory stick.
On connecting the device to my PC (using an extension USB cord) I noticed a very brief minute blue like spark, and didn'y release until I tried to access my files that the entire content was wiped.
Excel cannot open the file 'LostFile_XLSX_608879.xlsx' because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.
Well I think it looks fine to me, and I endeavoureed to use the Open & Repair when openng the file too, with no luck.
Installed Office Professional Plus 2010 on new computer with Windows 8. Can create and open all Office documents except unable to open existing Excel documents. When try to open, I am asked for the activation key. When key is entered, get message that key is not valid. Inserted install disk and re-entered activation key. Did not work.
So let me start by saying that I have checked several things already. I have made sure that the brightness slider is all the way up, I have gone into advanced display settings and turned off any sort of auto dim feature and made sure that all brightness settings are turned all the way up.
I am on an old gateway Vista laptop (dual core cpu, 2GB ram) and I have Windows 8 release preview 32 bit installed on a separate partition on my HDD. When I installed it, everything went fine. Then after running 8 for about 10 minutes, all of a sudden a window popped up above my battery icon in the tray saying that I should replace my battery, and the screen went dim. It was as if I turned the brightness slider all the way down. Well all of the sliders and settings are still at 100% brightness, unplugged or on power.
When I boot back into Vista, everything works fine. There is no battery warning or brightness issues.
New to Windows 8, just installed it today & have made it genuine with use of a patch.when you go into Settings/ Change PC Settings/Personalize the screen is greyed out & cannot use any of the screen.
When I highlight text in Word 2010, the background of the highlight becomes white and the text itself becomes dark blue. Is there a way to change it in Regedit (or elsewhere)?
I tried fiddling with colors here, but no luck:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Colors HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop Colors
I recently updated to a HP laptop with windows 8 and downloaded iTunes and transferred my music over which I can open and play, however when I try to go the iTunes store I get "iTunes has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." I never get any notification and I can't work out the problem, I have uninstalled and re-installed and still have the same issue.
How can I view a PDF file and an Excel file on the screen at the same same time? Every time I open a PDF file, everything shuts down, excel for the PDF. Whenever I click off the PFD, I see everything else, but the PDF is gone. I'm trying to get some info from the PDF to Excel, but it's really hard to do this in Widows 8. In Windows 7 and previous versions, I could see more than one thing on my screen at the same time. Now, the PDF simply takes over control of everything else, so you see the PDF and that's it and that's all.
Download of Open Office 4.0.0 from SourceForge failed on Win 8 ASUS laptop.
Error Message:
C:UsersSusanDownloadsApache_OpenOffice_4.0.0_Win_x86_install_en-US.exe.part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read. Try again later, or contact the server administrator.
I did not have a problem with the same download on a Vista machine. I sent an email to SourceForge. No response yet.
Can't view a website and the Excel web app via the split screen. Windows 8 keeps replacing one with the other. I do know how to have 2 sites up at the same time. I access the Excell web app via Sky drive. Is that the problem?
Win 8.1 eliminated word and excel. I just updated to 8.1 from win 8 and have alot of documents and spreadsheets from Windows 8 office starter package. What programs can I use to open and edit these. Also, what programs are compatible to create docs and spreadsheets in win 8.1 to be opened and edited in win 7?
I bought a new notebook with Windows 8 and upgrade to 8.1, and i also install a new Windows 8.1 in a new computer 3 days ago... and both of my Windows don't open the apps on the first screen.. like Skype, email, windows store....
The apps almost start, show the program name on the screen them close.. The problem is that is happening on both computers....
Since updating to 8.1 my apps don't open in start screen.. I click on the app..the screen goes directly to the desktop and the blank app screen sits in the desktop tool bar. I can't open any of the programs. I have a Gateway ZX6980 ..
i have a problem with my windows 8 . all my apps on my start screen cant open.. Its say that This apps can't open check window store for more information and gt a little X at the top right of the all apps..
I don't know if this is a Windows issue or just an issue with my software but I was using Corel Paint shop pro x6 and I'm not sure what I did but after opening files or using the save to option several times, all of a sudden the window started opening full screen and there doesn't seem to be any way to minimize it.
I tried to see if I could at least drag it some place but it won't move. I tried going to every side and corner to see if I could resize it that way but nothing happens. This is the only program that opens my folders in full screen so perhaps it has nothing to do with Windows but how I can get my folders to open in a small screen where you can move them over or out of the way of something you might be looking at.
Whenever, I try double-clicking an Excel file in Windows Explorer, I get an error message that says "There was a problem sending the command to the program." I tried Microsoft's solution of unchecking the box under options that says "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" but it was already unchecked. I checked it and unchecked it and I'm still having the problem. This is using Excel 2013 with Windows 8.1 64-bit.
I have a Lenovo G505s AMD A8 Laptop, fairly new to Windows 8 as this is my first platform running it. Not had the system long, but generally finding it ok except for this one problem thats decided to arise:
All apps, including the Windows Store fail to launch when clicked. They display a splash screen but no loading symbol, the splash screen hangs for about a minute and then the whole app shuts off again. This started with the calculator from what I can see, but now it seems to affect all of them. I've tried multiple theories from several forums and sites but nothing has made a difference.
If possible I don't want to have to refresh or reinstall Windows 8 as I have a fair amount of software I've installed and don't want to have to go through installation all over again.
I have a lot of excel spreadsheets with embedded links to jpg and pdf documents stored on an NAS. In both Win XP and Win 7 I could set the file association to make them always open in the Win picture preview pane.
In Win 8.1 they will ONLY open in IE11.
I have changed the registry as directed by MS in this article to no avail.
How to configure Internet Explorer to open Office documents in the appropriate Office program instead of in Internet Explorer
Locate the subkey for the specific Office document type.The following table lists the subkeys for several common Office document types. Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Worksheet Excel.Sheet.8
After you identify the subkey for the specific Officedocument type, follow these steps:
If the Office document is an Microsoft Office Excel document, add the following value for all Microsoft Office Excel subkeys except the Excel.Sheet.5 subkey:
Value name: BrowserFlags Data type: REG_DWORD Value: 8
I do not want to view them in IE which is harder to zoom, and my habits do not change as easily as MS thinks they should.
Today when I turned on my laptop the screen was black, not showing a thing. With no options to solve this I rebooted the laptop by pressing the power button for a few seconds.
When I restarted the laptop it started and shown the username/password screen. I input my password and then a pop up window appeared with an error related to explorer.exe
I cannot see the apps screen or the desktop. The desktop is just a black screen with a grey bar. I can access windows explorer by clicking "windows key + E" but I cannot do anything else.
Now every time I start my laptop, the error does not come up, I input my password and I don't see apps screen or desktop.
My screen seems to have a grey filter overlaying it. See attached.
When i booted it in safe mode, the screen is showing the right vibrant colors. When i booted it back to normal mode, the screen is greyish but strangely the mouse is showing the correct white color.
I have googled across numerous website but none of them bring me closer to the issue. I have read the thread, Personalize Suddenly Greyed Out but this is not what i encountered. The options or buttons or selections did not grey out, it affects the screen only.
I cannot afford a system restore because i shared this laptop with my gf.
I'm trying to keep the windows 8 start screen open on one screen and have the other open to the desktop, but any time I click an app on the desktop the 2nd screen with the Windows 8 start screen minimizes. Is there any way to change this behavior?
The screen keep blacking out for a second or two. It isn't the monitor or hardware because this NEVER happens when I'm on the Metro Apps page. - Bizarre. I've been through to Task Manager and tried to cull everything that didn't look necessary. Didn't work. I've even done a "Restore" - no success either. The blanking seems more frequent when I initially start using the computer and after about 1/2 hr only occurs occasionally. I stress that there is never, ever any blanking if I either go to the Metro Apps desktop page or a metro app itself.
BENQ monitor. - Digital (non HDMI) interface with NVIDIA video card. IBM Clone computer. 4GB RAM. Quad core processor. Unsure of the motherboard.
