+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 6 of 6

Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    05-23-2013
    Location
    atlanta, georgia
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2003
    Posts
    26

    Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

    So I have put together a dashboard in excel that relies on 4 tables of data in access.

    One table is about 3 Million Rows.

    The other 3 are about 300k each.

    The dashboard went together without any issues as I built the pieces and integrated them into a single excel file. However I added a new month of data to the backend in access and now excel cannot refresh. I had no problems refreshing the dashboard prior to the new data.

    Office 2010, Access 2010, (32bit).

    Any idea what could be causing this issue? I have been watching the memory usage and it has yet to exceed 1.4gigs of memory which I have exceeded many times in the past with a previous version of the dashboard. Please advise if you have any ideas as to what may be causing this strange behavior.

  2. #2
    Forum Contributor noboffinme's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-29-2013
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2003/7/10/13/16/19
    Posts
    1,071

    Re: Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

    Hi Xcelguy,

    How is the BE data connected from Access to Excel?

    Do you update the 'link' or whatever everytime you add more BE data?

    Also, keep in mind the Pivot will be reading the original cell Range & this may need to be changed to incorporate the new data ie; Your original 3 millions rows were used to create the pivot, check to ensure it is not still only reading those 3 million rows & has been extended to cover the new data also.

    Hth
    Remember you are unique, like everyone else

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    05-23-2013
    Location
    atlanta, georgia
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2003
    Posts
    26

    Re: Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

    The link references the query. When the query is updated in access i go to excel and download the new data. The link doesn't have anything to do with this. I think the problem is memory limitations. I was watching where excel bugs out and it is when it gets to about line 3.7M of out 3.75 Million. Watching the memory it is sitting around 1.6 gbs at this point and it likely doesnt have the memory available to play with the new data, while holding onto the old data. This is when it geives the error message about an error getting the data.

  4. #4
    Forum Contributor noboffinme's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-29-2013
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2003/7/10/13/16/19
    Posts
    1,071

    Re: Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

    On the line where it errors, is there anything unusual about that Row of data?

    Could you test removing all data from the error Row to the end of file (Inclusive)& then replace it with a section of the data from Rows before the error line.

    This would rule out a data type issue.

    This doesn't seem to be a memory issue as you have exceeded this limitation before without a problem.

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    05-23-2013
    Location
    atlanta, georgia
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2003
    Posts
    26

    Re: Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

    I've actually been researching this today. I began to break the file apart tab by tab and refreshing piece by piece and found that one of the queries was causing the problem. It would get up to about 1.7 gigs of memory when it would stop responding. People have tested excel's memory limitations before and they are actually triggered as low as 1.6 gigs even though the nominal limit is 2 gigs. Apparently excel requires continuous blocks of data so the 2 gig limitation in excel is probably being tripped without me seeing it. I have our purchaser ordering me 4 more gigs of ram and 64 bit version of excel so I can overcome this memory limitation. If this does not solve the issue I might be back but I am thinking hidden limitations are driving this erratic behavior.

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    05-23-2013
    Location
    atlanta, georgia
    MS-Off Ver
    Excel 2003
    Posts
    26

    Re: Excel Front End Dashboard - Access Back End - 3 Million Rows of Data - Refresh Issues

    I also found a crazy work around if anyone wants to try it---

    Hitting refresh All breaks the memory limitation. However if you go into the connection itself between excel and access and just retarget the same table it goes through and manually refreshes the pivots 1x1. Seems to update just fine and work after.

+ Reply to Thread

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Implement back end DB whien using excel as front end DB
    By Snoopy2003 in forum Excel Programming / VBA / Macros
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-30-2012, 06:39 PM
  2. Access Front-end, Excel Back-end
    By dreicer_Jarr in forum Excel General
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 03-08-2010, 08:07 PM
  3. [SOLVED] I can not get excel to print on front and back can anyone help me.
    By de_stap in forum Excel - New Users/Basics
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 02-01-2006, 02:40 PM
  4. [SOLVED] Excel or Access for building front end to small data-set?
    By Peter K in forum Excel General
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 01-18-2006, 06:50 PM
  5. [SOLVED] RE: How can I print on the front and back of a page in excel?
    By Jonathan Cooper in forum Excel General
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 09-29-2005, 10:05 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts

Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0 RC 1