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El Capitan is sinking the ship! (crashing, stalling...)

B

Bushwood

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 26, 2014
50
2
I have a 2011 MB Pro running 10.11.1. It was running great (!) before I updated to El Capitan. Now, it's running horribly - Word and PowerPoint seems to be feeling it the worst. Both programs are constantly crashing. Very often, with PowerPoint, it is unable to render any images in the document - just shows a bunch of red Xs. I am getting memory warns often too.

The only change was the "upgrade". Is there anything I can do to fix this?

Thanks!
 
If you are running MS Office 2011, make sure that your Office has the latest updates.
Version should now be 14.5.8

Office is the only software that I use that, for me, seems to work best from a relatively fresh install. I delete and reinstall Office from original installer probably twice a year. (Maybe it's just me :D )

Do you have sufficient memory installed in your MBPro?
I would not use El Capitan with less than 8GB, for example, particularly if you still have a spinning hard drive.
An SSD should be OK for most uses with less than 8GB.
 
@joecool99... what does that mean - "do clean install" mean?

I have upgraded from 4 to 16 GB, and storage doesn't look bad:


I can't even put an image in a PowerPoint slide now. Again, all this memory crap started after installing El Capitan.



Thanks
 
Guys, I appreciate the comments, e.g. "do clean install", but come on - if I knew what "do clean install" meant (now do, after googling) and how to "do clean install" after having updated to El Capitan... I'd likely not be asking questions like I've been here.

So... since I've already updated to El Capitan and my computer is running like complete $*&#... is there anything I can do to fix it?

Thanks
 
Is MS Office the only thing you are having trouble with? I know like DeltaMac mentioned there were some MS updates after El Capitan came out.

What is the memory error you mentioned you are seeing?
 
seriously, are the microsoft office apps the only ones you're having issues with? if so, as deltamac pointed out above...run any office updates.
 
According to the microsoft updater - open any Office app, click "Help", click "Check for Updates" - there are no updates available. It looks like my laptop is running 14.5.8

Current memory status...
 
If you can't install that old 14.4.8 update for Office, then you might want to try the current version, which is 14.5.8

One way would be to open Word, then choose the Help menu, Check for Updates.
You can also get the 14.5.8 update directly from Microsoft downloads here.
If the 14.5.8 updater gives you the same error, then I recommend that you remove Office, then reinstall Office completely from your original Office installer.
 
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You're too fast DeltaMac... I posted, saw that I was running 14.5.8 and edited my post... while you were answering
 
Bushwood said:
According to the microsoft updater - open any Office app, click "Help", click "Check for Updates" - there are no updates available. It looks like my laptop is running 14.5.8

Current memory status...
Click to expand...

First thing to try is to uninstall whatever unnecessary monitoring utility provided the status dialog you posted. Then, uninstall CleanMyMac. And lastly, uninstall any any all 3rd party security or antivirus applications.

IMHO the vast majority of slow macs and problems upgrading are all user induced by installing completely unnecessary utility software and security software.
 
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I agree with last post ^ ^
The p.o.s. CleanMyMac is probably not doing you any favors either.
Consider removing that next, too.

thinking about Office: That's one that I use a lot, and I always do a reinstall of Office after any major OS updates. It's the sole software that I have that I feel needs to be reinstalled about once per year, even if nothing else major happens with the rest of the OS X system. Just more Microsoft fun, in my opinion, anyway.
 
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I second DeltaMac suggestion - in fact if you have tons of email, multiple accounts and large attachments I recommend rebuilding the Outlook database (Press Option while opening) before the re install of Office. this will automatically create a back up of the "Main Identity" so you will have the new rebuild and the previous data as a back up. Then do the Office re-install and upgrades to the current latest version 14.5.8. This fixed a lot problems for me when I upgraded to El Capitan ( FWIW did not do a clean install of El Capitan - just the microsoft re-install)
 
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I uninstalled Office 2011 and installed 2016 - version 15.15 - and it seems to be working well now, but it usually does after any restart. I'll give a few days and see how it does.
Thanks guys. I really do appreciate all the help.
 
mikzn said:
... Then do the Office re-install and upgrades to the latest version 10.5.8. This fixed a lot problems for me when I upgraded to El Capitan ( FWIW did not do a clean install of El Capitan - just the microsoft re-install)
Click to expand...
Correct that 10.5.8 to be 14.5.8 :D
I agree about rebuilding the Outlook database, although I, for one, don't use Outlook at all. There is still a database, even if Outlook is not used. Must be "important stuff" for Office as a whole, so I rebuild that, too.
 
Well, I thought that did it... nope. I am now having the exact same issues with Office 2016. Ex: can't insert a pic into a PowerPoint - same error message as before

Newest issue - Word won't open docs - goes through process, but keeps opening same doc, regardless of which doc is chosen
 
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