Excel Out of Memory, Not enough System Resources to Display Completely

When using Office 365 Excel application, you may receive an error that would point to “Out of Memory, Not enough System Resources to Display Completely” condition. In this post, we are offering how you can resolve this problem and continue to use the Excel File.

Here is the list of errors that can show up under this situation:

• Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications.
• Out of Memory
• Not enough System Resources to Display Completely
• There isn't enough memory to complete this action. Try using less data or closing other applications. To increase memory availability, consider:
  •  Using a 64-bit version of Microsoft Excel.
  •  Adding memory to your device.

Cause for Out of Memory message

It is important to note that the error message is general, but one thing is clear that the Excel app is not able to process large file sizes. The file is so huge that it consumes the whole memory available to the system. If your Excel file is large or has a lot of formulas and scripts, the system may run low on memory. That said, Microsoft has officially shared some limitations for Excel.

• Excel: Specifications and limits
• Excel Performance: Performance and Limit Improvements
• Excel: Memory usage in the 32-bit edition

Keeping this in mind, let us know how we can resolve the error message.

Out of Memory, Not enough System Resources to Display Completely

1. Install Updates
2. File Specific Issue
3. Interfering Add-ins
4. Test with the 64-bit version of Excel
5. Add Physical RAM
6. Change the default Printer
7. Test without Antivirus

It is apparent that you need more memory. You may look at the other applications that are consuming the memory and get rid of them. You can terminate such applications, and stop them from running in the background.

1] Install Updates

Sometimes it could be because of a previous update or Microsoft have released an update to handle these kinds of situations. I would highly recommend you to check for any update for your OS as well as Office software and install it before following any further suggestion.

2] File Specific Issue

If the error is occurring for only one file, then you may need to revisit the content of the files. It could be because of the high number of calculations when it happens when you copy-paste such cells, complex PivotTables, macros, and complex charts with many data points, custom views,  and so on.

It is something you need to manually check by opening it in Protected View or disabling VPA features and so on. Remember, the error will not occur when you open a file, but it will happen when it performs a heavy calculation or when you insert new data goes beyond the capacity of Excel.

You may also want to break the excel file into smaller files to handle the situation in a better way.

3] Interfering Add-ins

If you have plugins or add-ins installed in Excel, it would be a good idea to disable and check if you still face the issue. If you do not face any problem, then you need to check if there is an update for the add-in available. Sometime Add-ins take a high amount of resources to complete a task, which results in Out of Memory, Not enough System Resources to Display Completely problem.

4] Try with the 64-bit version of Excel

A 64-bit version of Microsoft Office can handle large files better than the 32 bit Excel application. It is because there is a limit of 2 GB for any 32-bit application. If you need to handle large files almost every day, it is better to download or move to Microsoft Excel 64 bit version. It will be able to access more RAM and get things done faster without resulting in Out of Memory issue.

5] Add more physical memory to your computer

If it is the physical memory you are running out of, then its time you add more RAM to your computer. If you are switching to a 64-bit version, then adding extra memory will help you process the Excel file a lot faster.

6] Change the default Printer

When Excel launches, it polls for the default printer. At times, it may get stuck with if the printer is not available or doesn't respond because the data is too much to handle. We will recommend you to change your default printer to one of the virtual printers available on the computer such as PDF printer or XPS document writer.

• Open Windows 10 Settings (WIn + I)
• Navigate to Devices > Printers and Scanners
• Uncheck the box which says Let Windows manage my default printer
• Select one of the virtual printers, and click on Manage button
• Click on Set as default button under Manage your device section

Try again, and see if it works fine this time.

7] Disable Antivirus

Antivirus software is known to cause these types of problems, especially if then end up scanning the file again and again. It can be a false positive as well if the antivirus things the file can harm the computer. Most of the antivirus offer a temporarily disable option. So try again after doing that or completely uninstall the AV to check if the issue is resolved.

Let us know if anything here helped you.