Excel 2002 problem - cursor won't release after selecting cells on a worksheet

Question

Hi,   I keep having this intermittent problem with Excel 2002 on my Inspiron 8200. When I select a range of cells on a worksheet the cursor will not release the selection upon releasing the mouse button. After this happens the selection area remains highlighted and highlights new areas of the worksheet as I move the cursor around the sheet. The cursor remains inactive for performing new tasks and I cannot escape from this error with perform a force quit and reopening the worksheet.   A friend has had similar problems with a newer version of Excel too and cannot explain it.   Any suggestions?

abach · Answer

Try loading Excel in Safe Mode.   Start, Run, then type the following: (There is a space before the /s)   excel /s   Click OK and see if the problem goes away. (You should notice the words safe mode in the title bar)  If so, there is a program that is starting with Excel. Choose Tools, Add-ins in the Excel menu and look for something on the bottom of the list with a check mark. Uncheck one at a time, restarting Excel to see if any of them resolve your problem

Delierious · Answer

I suppose it could be that the right mouse button has stuck down.

Protist · Answer

Thanks for the suggestions but the problem has subsided. I ran an Ad-Aware scan which came up with a couple of issues, but during the course of the Ad-Aware scan a Symantec AntiVirus window opened and indicated that it too had found several problem files. Immediately after deleting the files detected by Ad-Aware and Symantec Excel began working normally. I find it odd that Symantec only detected the files that seemed to be causing this Excel problem during the Ad-Aware scan.   -P

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