All,

I have a fairly large workbook containing about a dozen worksheets. There
are some fairly complex formulas including cross-worksheet references. A
single macro loops x number of times, changing fields and re-calculating all
formulas.

I have tested this spreadsheet on 9 different PCs and on two of them the
performance is 30 times faster than the other seven (i.e one macro execution
of the "Calculate" command takes about 1 second on the two speedy machines
versus about 30 seconds on other seven). The PCs are all dramatically
different: Intel vs. AMD, different levels of memory ranging from 128MB to
1GB, different video cards, same versions of Excel (2000), Windows 2000 with
SP3, etc.

I can't find a common denominator in the two machines that process it
quickly. One of the machines is an home-made AMD 1.3 Ghz processor with
500MB RAM and standard 7200RPM IDE disk. The other is an Dell Dimension
4400 with 256MB RAM.

Among the slower processing machines a
(1) a brand new AMD Athlon XP2100+ with 512MB of DDR RM
(2) a brand new Sony VAIO GRS700K Notebook with 512MB RAM and a 1.8 Ghz
processor.
(3) a Dell PowerEdge 1400 server with dual 800 mhz processors and 500MB RAM.

It doesn't seem like a matter of horsepower, specifically. Does anyone know
of any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
spreadsheets? Any other ideas on what might be causing this dramatic
performance difference?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mark D'Agosta

MD,

First thing I'd do is clear out the Windows/Temp directory.
If that doesn't do the trick, take a look here for more info:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/slowresp.htm

John

MD wrote:

All,

I have a fairly large workbook containing about a dozen worksheets. There
are some fairly complex formulas including cross-worksheet references. A
single macro loops x number of times, changing fields and re-calculating all
formulas.

I have tested this spreadsheet on 9 different PCs and on two of them the
performance is 30 times faster than the other seven (i.e one macro execution
of the "Calculate" command takes about 1 second on the two speedy machines
versus about 30 seconds on other seven). The PCs are all dramatically
different: Intel vs. AMD, different levels of memory ranging from 128MB to
1GB, different video cards, same versions of Excel (2000), Windows 2000 with
SP3, etc.

I can't find a common denominator in the two machines that process it
quickly. One of the machines is an home-made AMD 1.3 Ghz processor with
500MB RAM and standard 7200RPM IDE disk. The other is an Dell Dimension
4400 with 256MB RAM.

Among the slower processing machines a
(1) a brand new AMD Athlon XP2100+ with 512MB of DDR RM
(2) a brand new Sony VAIO GRS700K Notebook with 512MB RAM and a 1.8 Ghz
processor.
(3) a Dell PowerEdge 1400 server with dual 800 mhz processors and 500MB RAM.

It doesn't seem like a matter of horsepower, specifically. Does anyone know
of any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
spreadsheets? Any other ideas on what might be causing this dramatic
performance difference?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mark D'Agosta

Do you have hyper-threading switched on/off ?

"MD" wrote in message
et...
All,

I have a fairly large workbook containing about a dozen worksheets. There
are some fairly complex formulas including cross-worksheet references. A
single macro loops x number of times, changing fields and re-calculating
all
formulas.

I have tested this spreadsheet on 9 different PCs and on two of them the
performance is 30 times faster than the other seven (i.e one macro
execution
of the "Calculate" command takes about 1 second on the two speedy machines
versus about 30 seconds on other seven). The PCs are all dramatically
different: Intel vs. AMD, different levels of memory ranging from 128MB
to
1GB, different video cards, same versions of Excel (2000), Windows 2000
with
SP3, etc.

I can't find a common denominator in the two machines that process it
quickly. One of the machines is an home-made AMD 1.3 Ghz processor with
500MB RAM and standard 7200RPM IDE disk. The other is an Dell Dimension
4400 with 256MB RAM.

Among the slower processing machines a
(1) a brand new AMD Athlon XP2100+ with 512MB of DDR RM
(2) a brand new Sony VAIO GRS700K Notebook with 512MB RAM and a 1.8 Ghz
processor.
(3) a Dell PowerEdge 1400 server with dual 800 mhz processors and 500MB
RAM.

It doesn't seem like a matter of horsepower, specifically. Does anyone
know
of any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
spreadsheets? Any other ideas on what might be causing this dramatic
performance difference?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mark D'Agosta

As far as I'm aware, hyper-threading is not available on any of the machines
that I tested with.

Thanks,

MD

"Jessie" wrote in message
...
Do you have hyper-threading switched on/off ?

"MD" wrote in message
et...
All,

I have a fairly large workbook containing about a dozen worksheets.
There
are some fairly complex formulas including cross-worksheet references.
A
single macro loops x number of times, changing fields and re-calculating
all
formulas.

I have tested this spreadsheet on 9 different PCs and on two of them the
performance is 30 times faster than the other seven (i.e one macro
execution
of the "Calculate" command takes about 1 second on the two speedy
machines
versus about 30 seconds on other seven). The PCs are all dramatically
different: Intel vs. AMD, different levels of memory ranging from 128MB
to
1GB, different video cards, same versions of Excel (2000), Windows 2000
with
SP3, etc.

I can't find a common denominator in the two machines that process it
quickly. One of the machines is an home-made AMD 1.3 Ghz processor with
500MB RAM and standard 7200RPM IDE disk. The other is an Dell Dimension
4400 with 256MB RAM.

Among the slower processing machines a
(1) a brand new AMD Athlon XP2100+ with 512MB of DDR RM
(2) a brand new Sony VAIO GRS700K Notebook with 512MB RAM and a 1.8 Ghz
processor.
(3) a Dell PowerEdge 1400 server with dual 800 mhz processors and 500MB
RAM.

It doesn't seem like a matter of horsepower, specifically. Does anyone
know
of any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
spreadsheets? Any other ideas on what might be causing this dramatic
performance difference?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mark D'Agosta

MD,

Did you try that site that I pointed you to in my first response?
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/slowresp.htm

any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
"Fast Excel" is one that I know of. It isn't free but there's a lot of
other free information on the site for optimizing Excel. It's probably
not going to help with discovering the processing time differences
between the PC's but may offer some insight in how to speed things
up overall.
http://www.decisionmodels.com/

John



MD wrote:

As far as I'm aware, hyper-threading is not available on any of the machines
that I tested with.

Thanks,

MD

"Jessie" wrote in message
...
Do you have hyper-threading switched on/off ?

"MD" wrote in message
et...
All,

I have a fairly large workbook containing about a dozen worksheets.
There
are some fairly complex formulas including cross-worksheet references.
A
single macro loops x number of times, changing fields and re-calculating
all
formulas.

I have tested this spreadsheet on 9 different PCs and on two of them the
performance is 30 times faster than the other seven (i.e one macro
execution
of the "Calculate" command takes about 1 second on the two speedy
machines
versus about 30 seconds on other seven). The PCs are all dramatically
different: Intel vs. AMD, different levels of memory ranging from 128MB
to
1GB, different video cards, same versions of Excel (2000), Windows 2000
with
SP3, etc.

I can't find a common denominator in the two machines that process it
quickly. One of the machines is an home-made AMD 1.3 Ghz processor with
500MB RAM and standard 7200RPM IDE disk. The other is an Dell Dimension
4400 with 256MB RAM.

Among the slower processing machines a
(1) a brand new AMD Athlon XP2100+ with 512MB of DDR RM
(2) a brand new Sony VAIO GRS700K Notebook with 512MB RAM and a 1.8 Ghz
processor.
(3) a Dell PowerEdge 1400 server with dual 800 mhz processors and 500MB
RAM.

It doesn't seem like a matter of horsepower, specifically. Does anyone
know
of any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
spreadsheets? Any other ideas on what might be causing this dramatic
performance difference?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mark D'Agosta

Yes, I did try many of the tips suggested on that site, but none of them
provided any significant performance improvement. What really has me
baffled is that the spreadsheet, without any performance enhancements, runs
in a fraction of the time on two out of nine machines. It's not just
horsepower because one of the speedy machines has a significantly slower
processor, less memory, standard IDE disk, etc. That leads me to believe
that it's some type of hardware configuration or setting. Or maybe a
specific brand/type of memory. Very frustrating...

Thanks again for your help, John.

MD

"John Wilson" wrote in message
...
MD,

Did you try that site that I pointed you to in my first response?
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/slowresp.htm

any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
"Fast Excel" is one that I know of. It isn't free but there's a lot of
other free information on the site for optimizing Excel. It's probably
not going to help with discovering the processing time differences
between the PC's but may offer some insight in how to speed things
up overall.
http://www.decisionmodels.com/

John



MD wrote:

As far as I'm aware, hyper-threading is not available on any of the
machines
that I tested with.

Thanks,

MD

"Jessie" wrote in message
...
Do you have hyper-threading switched on/off ?

"MD" wrote in message
et...
All,

I have a fairly large workbook containing about a dozen worksheets.
There
are some fairly complex formulas including cross-worksheet
references.
A
single macro loops x number of times, changing fields and
re-calculating
all
formulas.

I have tested this spreadsheet on 9 different PCs and on two of them
the
performance is 30 times faster than the other seven (i.e one macro
execution
of the "Calculate" command takes about 1 second on the two speedy
machines
versus about 30 seconds on other seven). The PCs are all
dramatically
different: Intel vs. AMD, different levels of memory ranging from
128MB
to
1GB, different video cards, same versions of Excel (2000), Windows
2000
with
SP3, etc.

I can't find a common denominator in the two machines that process
it
quickly. One of the machines is an home-made AMD 1.3 Ghz processor
with
500MB RAM and standard 7200RPM IDE disk. The other is an Dell
Dimension
4400 with 256MB RAM.

Among the slower processing machines a
(1) a brand new AMD Athlon XP2100+ with 512MB of DDR RM
(2) a brand new Sony VAIO GRS700K Notebook with 512MB RAM and a 1.8
Ghz
processor.
(3) a Dell PowerEdge 1400 server with dual 800 mhz processors and
500MB
RAM.

It doesn't seem like a matter of horsepower, specifically. Does
anyone
know
of any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in
Excel
spreadsheets? Any other ideas on what might be causing this
dramatic
performance difference?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mark D'Agosta

John,

Some good news. I bought the DecisionModels "Fast Excel" product and, in
about 30 minutes, I had identified and corrected the performance bottleneck.
HOWEVER, this still does not solve my original problem of why two machines
are not affected by this bottleneck, but at least I got the thing running
well on the rest of the machines and that was the main objective.

Your suggestion got me past the immediate crisis and now I can take my time
researching the problem of why the problem does not occur on certain
machines.

Thanks a million,

Mark

"John Wilson" wrote in message
...
MD,

Did you try that site that I pointed you to in my first response?
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/slowresp.htm

any tools available for identifying performance bottlenecks in Excel
"Fast Excel" is one that I know of. It isn't free but there's a lot of
other free information on the site for optimizing Excel. It's probably
not going to help with discovering the processing time differences
between the PC's but may offer some insight in how to speed things
up overall.
http://www.decisionmodels.com/

John