Auto adjusting column width causing issues

Hello,
I run a scheduled task on a server that opens excel and with the auto open event, refreshes some tables (imports a new txt file source and then removes the source from the connections) and then generates some charts and exports all the charts to pngs.
Lately, when opening, it takes forever to 'auto adjust columns' to the point where the Application.Quit happens and some of the picture files are empty.
I really do think the culprit is that excel is taking forever to actually open the spreadsheet and at the same time the auto open event is running, before it actually opens the file all the way.
Some of the charts exported pictures end up @ 0 size.


How do I turn this auto adjust stuff off?
I was just going to add some stupid long application.wait as the first thing on the auto open event, but that's sloppy, and not 100% guaranteed to work.

Just to be clear, its the splash screen that takes forever (which says the step its on is 'auto adjusting columns. press (esc) to cancel'). I'm assuming there's a way to turn this off either globally or for each table. just need some help figuring this out.