I used to get the same problem in Excel XP.
I couldn't find any corrolation with file size either.

I think it might be related to having the titles frozen (Window, Freeze
Pane) at the same time as using the filter.

Once I switched that off the filter seemed to freeze less often.
I don't know of any patch, my solution was the same as yours.

Just think of it as one of those features that microsoft introduces into its
products to make our working days more interesting :-)

Regards
Phil

"Crafty Carper" wrote:

When using filters my collegues and I frequently experiance problems where
they don't work. It's like they freeze. The only way to fix them is to
remove the filters, unhide the rows which may have been alrready filtered and
start the filter again. Somethimes that doesn't work and we have to close
down the file and reopen it. We thought it maybe a spreadsheet size issue,
but one collegue tried it with a small file and experienced the same
problem.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and if so, is there a way of fixing
it?