Excel VBA App stops spontaneously with message "Code execution has been halted"

I would try the usual remedial things: - Run Rob Bovey's VBA Code Cleaner on your VBA Code - remove all addins on the users PC, particularly COM and .NET addins - Delete all the users .EXD files (MSoft Update incompatibilities) - Run Excel Detect & Repair on the users system - check the size of the user's .xlb file (should be 20-30K) - Reboot then delete all the users Temp files

Thanks to everyone for their input. This problem got solved by choosing REPAIR in Control Panel. I guess this explicitly re-registers some of Office's native COM components and does stuff that REINSTALL doesn't. I expect the latter just goes through a checklist and sometimes accepts what's there if it's already installed, maybe. I then had a separate issue with registering my own .NET dll for COM interop on the user's machine (despite this also working on other machines) though I think this was my error rather than Microsoft. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

I would like to add more details to Stan's answer #2 for below reasons:

• I faced this issue myself more than dozen times and depending on project conditions, I chose between stan's voodoo magic answer #1 or #2. When I kept on facing it again, I become more inquistive that why it happens in first place.

• I'd like to add answer for Mac users too.

• There are limitations with both these possible answers:

  • if the code is protected (and you don't know password) then answer #1 won't help.
  • if the code is unprotected then answer #2 won't let you debug the code.

1. It may happen due to any of the below reasons:

   • Operating system not allocating system resources to the Excel process. (Solution: One needs to just start the operating system - success rate is very low but has known to work many times)

   • P-code is the intermediate code that was used in Visual Basic (before .NET) and hence it is still used in the VBA. It enabled a more compact executable at the expense of slower execution. Why I am talking about p-code? Because it gets corrupted sometimes between multiple executions and large files or just due to installation of the software (Excel) went corrupt somewhere. When p-code corrupts. the code execution keeps getting interrupted. Solution: In these cases, it is assumed that your code has started to corrupt and chances in future are that your Excel workbook also get corrupt giving you messages like "excel file corrupted and cannot be opened". Hence, as a quick solution, you can rely on answer #1 or answer #2 as per your requirements. However, never ignore the signs of corruption. It's better to copy your code modules in notepad, delete the modules, save & close the workbook, close the excel. Now, re-open the workbook and start creating new modules with the code copied earlier to notepad.

2. Mac users, try any of the below option and of them will definitely work depending on your system architecture i.e. OS and Office version

   • Ctrl + Pause
   • Ctrl + ScrLk
   • Esc + Esc (Press twice consecutively)

You will be put into break mode using the above key combinations as the macro suspends execution immediately finishing the current task. This is replacement of Step 2.

3. Solution: To overcome the limitation of using answer #1 and answer #2, I use xlErrorHandler along with Resume statement in the Error Handler if the error code is 18. Then, the interrupt is sent to the running procedure as an error, trappable by an error handler set up with an On Error GoTo statement. The trappable error code is 18. The current procedure is interrupted, and the user can debug or end the procedure. Microsoft gives caution that do not use this if your error handler has resume statement else your error handler always returns to the same statement. That's exactly we want in unwanted meaningless interruptions of code execution.

If it's a phantom breakpoint:

1 Delete the offending line of code

2 Run the code again

3 Repaste the line

I found this laughably simple solution after spending a couple days wading through all the answers here and elsewhere. I figured, if I link it to my original question it might help some other poor chap, since the question it's on is VBA break execution when there's no break key on keyboard and this is more applicable.

Link to original answer

I faced the same issue today. Resolved it with these steps.

1. Create a new module
2. Move the procedure that is causing the issue to this new module.
3. Save project
4. Run macro again.

This time, the code execution will run till completion without any intermediate stops.