Excel column header turns white when cell selected

Forums › Desktop computing › Excel column header turns white when cell selected

Dynamic

3574 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#298647 4-Jul-2022 11:01

Hi Team

Troubleshooting an issue for a client, but I've not been able to resolve this so far. When you select a cell in Excel, the column and row headers for those cells turn white. e.g. if you select cell B2 (regardless of if there is anything in the cell), the B and the 2 turn white. SOmetimes cell walls dissappear. Cell content has never disappeared (in my testing at least). The only thing that corrects this temporarily is a CTRL-SHIFT-WINKEY-B. Things I've tried so far that have not helped:

Checked for updates installed in the last fortnight - nothing that I can see. It's possible the user has been sitting on a pending reboot for a fortnight. When I saw the machine it had recently been rebooted.
Installed Windows Updates (all up to date Win 10 Pro x64)
Office 365 Apps for Enterprise said it was up to date
Video driver (and BIOS at the same time) updated
Disabling hardware acceleration in MS Office (in the registry I added DisableHardwareAcceleration under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Graphics, as the tickbox in Options, Advanced was not present)
Rebooted after each major step.

I'd welcome suggestions!

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

trig42

5604 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2938067 4-Jul-2022 11:10

Graphics Drivers?

Remove and reinstall Office?

Backblaze

Backblaze Unlimited Backup. World’s easiest cloud backup. Get peace of mind knowing your files are backed up securely in the cloud (affiliate link).

kiwiharry

948 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2938153 4-Jul-2022 12:31

I'm having similar issue. When scrolling, the newly displayed cells are white/opaque. If I minimise window and restore window then cells display ok, well, until I scroll again that is.

If you can't laugh at yourself then you probably shouldn't laugh at others.

kiwiharry

948 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2938181 4-Jul-2022 13:53

kiwiharry: I'm having similar issue. When scrolling, the newly displayed cells are white/opaque. If I minimise window and restore window then cells display ok, well, until I scroll again that is.

My issue seems to have resolved. A reboot hadn't resolved it before I went to lunch. After lunch I closed workbook and opened another workbook. That was OK. Reopened original workbook and that was now fine.

If you can't laugh at yourself then you probably shouldn't laugh at others.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
76331 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#2938199 4-Jul-2022 14:38

If it happens again you could try Win+Ctrl+Shift+B to restart the video drivers. Or turn off hardware graphics acceleration in Office apps to see if it helps. if it does, check video drivers are updated.

Please support Geekzone by subscribing, or using one of our referral links: Dosh referral: 00001283 | Sharesies | Goodsync | Mighty Ape | Backblaze

freitasm on Keybase | My technology disclosure

Dynamic

3574 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2938340 4-Jul-2022 18:15

When our client finished for the day, I jumped in and did a full repair of Office. The problem went away. Ideally I should have tried that earlier.

Tanks for the suggestons, Team.

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Referral links to services I use, really like, and may be rewarded if you sign up:
PocketSmith for budgeting and personal finance management. A great Kiwi company.

jonherries

1311 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2938345 4-Jul-2022 18:29

Have seen this before (but not for years), when Excel (app) has been open for a week or two, with lots of spreadsheets and ram used.

Generally resolved with restart of Excel and or the machine.

Jon

GregV

917 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2938359 4-Jul-2022 20:03

Late to the party on this one, but Microsoft posted this today, which may explain it

ID: OP396850
Status
Service Restored
Restored Services
Microsoft 365 Apps
Details
Title: Users may see that cells in Excel desktop client appear blank or white when clicking on them or scrolling
User Impact: Users may have seen that cells in Excel desktop client appeared blank or white when clicking on them or when scrolling.
More info: While we focused on remediation, users may have been able to circumvent the issue by using Excel on the web.
Final status: We've reverted the offending update and have received confirmation from some users that the impact is remediated. Users that were impacted may need to force an update of the Excel desktop client for full service restoration.
Scope of impact: Any user that was utilizing Version 2206 (Build 15330.20196) of the Excel desktop client may have been impacted.

Oblivian

6942 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2938370 4-Jul-2022 21:15

Funny enough I was going to chime in and suggest a get-hotfix and see if it popped up at the same time as any updates.

Most the times I've had multiple users notice the menu bar flashing or vanishing totally the device was in the middle of live suite updates or pending reboot

Right pain since they merged a lot of the menu or general rendering across the whole suite.

robjg63

3833 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2938396 5-Jul-2022 09:07

Thanks guys - I saw this thread yesterday and an hour or two later had a user in the office complaining bitterly about an Excel issue.

Seems to be the same problem.

It was nice to actually be able to sound aware of it!

There used to be a way of disabling Graphics Acceleration in the products which apparently used to work when this sort of issue occurred, but MS removed the options in the Office products.

For what its worth (maybe next time if MS has fixed it):

Windows 10

Start> Settings> System> Display> (section) Multiple displays> Graphics settings

Select: Desktop app

Use the Browse button to add Excel.exe (you can use Process Explorer to find the path if it is running or right click on the shortcut and go to properties.)

(Robert: I think the path will be like this "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE")

After you’ve added Excel, select it from the list and press the Options button to select your GPU.

Use the Power Saving GPU: Microsoft Basic Render Driver to turn off hardware acceleration like you used to be able to do an easier way.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler