Open laptop lid. Find Excel cells 'greyed out'

JP56

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Odd one this... 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 (eg 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? Or is it a driver problem of some kind? I dunno.. any ideas? Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Upd 1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Pro 13
    CPU
    Intel i7
    Hard Drives
    PCIe SSD
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender
Attached shows the problem...

See attached excel.jpg for the problem. This only happens to Excel 2013, not to any other open window or app or any other Office component...

REALLY hoping someone has some ideas! :D

Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • excel.jpg
    excel.jpg
    105 KB · Views: 123

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Upd 1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Pro 13
    CPU
    Intel i7
    Hard Drives
    PCIe SSD
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender
What seems to happen is:

Open lid...Spreadsheet momentarily (for a split second) appears OK, then immediately 'greys out' (as per JPEG in previous post). Sometimes it recovers just as fast & is displayed normally, but when the problem arises, it doesn't revover & I'm left with it greyed out as in the JPEG...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Upd 1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Pro 13
    CPU
    Intel i7
    Hard Drives
    PCIe SSD
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender
extra info... PLEASE help!!

Extra info... when the problem arises, in Task Manager there seem to be 4 instances of EXCEL running, one of which shows as waiting for splwow64.exe.
Any hints as to what this problem is? Ta!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Upd 1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Pro 13
    CPU
    Intel i7
    Hard Drives
    PCIe SSD
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender
corrected error in last post

excel waiting for SPLWOW64.EXE (NOT syswow64.exe...) Sorry!

Still need help for the forum... pleeeese!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Upd 1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Pro 13
    CPU
    Intel i7
    Hard Drives
    PCIe SSD
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender
Still looking for help!

C'mon guys... ANYONE with a suggestion on this irritating problem, or a pointer to a known problem / workaround...PLEASE!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Upd 1 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Pro 13
    CPU
    Intel i7
    Hard Drives
    PCIe SSD
    Browser
    FF
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro (desktop), W10 (laptop), W10 Pro (tablet)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built i7-8700K, Hp Envy x360 EVO Laptop, MS Surface Pro 7
    CPU
    3.7Ghz Core i7-8700K, 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 4.7Ghz, 10th Gen Core™ i5-1035G4 1.1Ghz
    Motherboard
    ASUS TUF Z370-Pro Gaming, HP, MS
    Memory
    16G, 8G, 8G
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon RX580, Intel Iris X Graphics, Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4
    Sound Card
    ATI High Definition Audio (Built-in to mobo)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual Samsung U32J59 32 inch monitors, 13.3" display, 12.3" display
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160 (Desktop), 1920x1080 (laptop), 2736x1824 Pro 7
    Hard Drives
    500GB ssd boot drive with 2 & 10TB Data (Desktop), 512GB ssd (laptop), 128GB SSD (tablet)
    PSU
    Corsair CX 750M
    Case
    Antec 100
    Cooling
    Coolermaster CM 212+
    Keyboard
    IBM Model M - used continuously since 1986
    Mouse
    Microsoft IntelliMouse
    Internet Speed
    665Mbps/15Mbps down/up
    Browser
    FireFox, MS Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender on all
    Other Info
    Retired in 2015 after working in the tech industry for 41 years. First 10 years as a Technician, the rest as a programmer/software engineer. After 1 year of retirement, I was bored so went back to work as a Robotic Process Automation Consultant. Retired for 3rd (and final) time in 2019.
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