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Excel 365 slow scrolling on multiple computers

  1. #1
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    Excel 365 slow scrolling on multiple computers

    When I scroll either vertically or horizontally in Excel 365 I experience noticeable and disruptive lag. This doesn't occur in a blank worksheet, but I've isolated it down to just adding even one comment in any cell in a blank worksheet will cause this. Through my googling I've noticed that others have this issue. At first I thought this was specific to my computer (Dell XPS 13 laptop with an i7 and 16GB so no slouch), but then I tested it on a desktop and have the same issue. Below are the details of my test:

    Dell XPS 13 9370 with i7 and 16gb Ram and 4k screen with both Excel 2007 and Excel 365 installed on the same machine with Windows 10 Build 18362:

    Created blank sheets in both Excel 2007 and Excel 365, and then with stopwatch on my phone clock app, starting holding down down arrow key and lifted exactly when stopwatch reads 5 seconds:

    Blank sheet
    Excel 365: 160 rows, row number change is NOT smooth (*see detail below)
    Excel 2007: 160 rows, row number change is smooth

    Blank sheet with one comment
    Excel 365: 60 rows, row number change is NOT smooth
    Excel 2007: 160 rows, row number change is smooth

    *Regarding the number change not being smooth: what I mean by that is while in a blank sheet, Excel 365 will scroll about 160 cells in 5 seconds, but if you watch the left row numbers as you hold down the down arrow key, they don't display smoothly but will skip large amounts of numbers even though you end up in row 160 after depressing down arrow key at 5 second mark; Office 2007 doesn't do this, and instead properly displays the row numbers rapidly and steadily changing as you hold down the down arrow key

    Disablling hardware acceleration (Options>Advanced) makes no difference to the above.

    Hiding comments (Options>Advanced) makes no difference to the above.

    Also changing Windows text scaling to 100% or 300% (recommended by windows setting) from 225% didn't make a difference.

    I then thought maybe it's a resolution thing. Here's my test below with a low resolution:

    After changing resolution from 3840x2160 to 1600x900 and doing 5 seconds of scrolling:

    Blank sheet
    Excel 365: 160 rows, row number change is smooth
    Excel 2007: 160 rows, row number change is smooth

    Blank sheet with 1 comment:
    Excel 365: 160 rows, row number change IS NOT smooth
    Excel 2007: 160 rows, row number change is smooth

    So downgrading the resolution fixed the scrolling speed but the row number changes are still not smooth. And remember the above test case is a blank sheet with just one comment. So I wanted to test a more realistic harder case so opened a spreadsheet on which I do my taxes that has 4 tabs with a several hundred cells populated each. Here's that test:

    Tax analysis sheet (contains lots of comments so good to test)
    Excel 365: 115 rows, row number change IS NOT smooth
    Excel 2007: 155 rows, row number change is smooth

    So there is still a significant speed difference in a real world situation even with downgrading resolution. And even though lowering the resolution helps, that's not a realistic fix to change the resolution every time I want to use excel.

    I thought it must be a video card issue related to this particular laptop as multiple other people have this issue per:

    dell.com/community/XPS/Excel-sluggish-and-freezes-impossible-to-use/m-p/7286869

    But then there's also this in which people on non Dell computers have the issue:

    superuser.com/questions/1429975/excel-365-slow-scrolling-due-to-notes-and-comments

    So just to be sure, I installed both Excel 365 and Excel 2007 on my Dell Desktop that I bought in 2013 but is still a very fast computer, certainly at least for Excel. See the test below:

    Dell XPS 8500 i7-3770 16GB RAM, SSD HD, 4k screen running Windows 10 Pro Build 18632

    On Dell XPS 8500 Desktop at 4k resolution:
    Blank sheet
    Excel 365: 160 rows, row number change is smooth
    Excel 2007: 160 rows, row number change is smooth

    Blank sheet with one comment
    Excel 365: 80 rows, row number change is smooth
    Excel 2007: 160 rows, row number change is smooth

    So it looks like this issue isn't specific to the Dell XPS 13. I bought the above desktop in 2013 while my XPS 13 is from 2018. So something tells me this isn't just a Dell issue that's been around for 6 years. I think it's likely an issue with Excel 2016 itself. If someone has a non Dell computer with a 4k screen that can run the above test (literally just create the blank spreadsheet with and without a comment in the first cell, then hold down the down arrow key while you start and stop a stopwatch on your phone clock app), that would help isolate this problem. Please update this thread with what you find!
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    Re: Excel 365 slow scrolling on multiple computers

    Hi,
    I noticed the same problem. I also have the 2018 Dell XPS I7 laptop. The problem is for all Office apps and not only for Excel. My solution has been to run at 1080p and not 4K. Also, several other apps still do not scale properly to 4K in windows 10, so sticking to 1080p has not been too bad. However, did you find a proper solution?
    Regards,
    KL

  3. #3
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    Re: Excel 365 slow scrolling on multiple computers

    Hi, thanks for responding! I never did find a solution. I've been using Excel 2007 instead. Since it no longer has security updates, this is not a good solution though. I am going to test Excel 2013 at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I will update this thread when I do. It's kind of mind boggling that the most popular spreadsheet software in the world has this major issue.

  4. #4
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    Re: Excel 365 slow scrolling on multiple computers

    Hi,
    All of office 365 has a 4K performance issue on my laptop. I have never got round to testing this on other 4K screen PCs.
    What I have also done is to disable "show window contents whilst dragging or resizing windows" and this is also slow on window even at 1080p.
    Regards,
    KL

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