Sometimes when excel xla processes are run , after a period of time we
get an intermittent macro error that "clipboard cannot be purged" or
"Clipboard cannot be emptied" . We try to reproduce the error by
running through debug mode but are never successful. It happens only
once in a while and not on all the environments. Does it have to do
with the memory on the machine? How do we resolve this issue?

In the code, we are trying to 
       hWindow = GetClipboardOwner()
       OpenClipboard(hWindow)
       EmptyClipboard()
       CloseClipboard()

We searched all over the net but could not find a similar issue or
resolution. Please get back to us with the resolution.

We already got a resolution from one of the google searches but would
like better information. The information we got is

http://www.foxite.com/archives/0000024277.htm

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 23 Aug 2003 00:23 PDT

Have you customized your Windows Virtual Memory size? You may also
have a startup program running in the background that may be
interfering with clipboard function. If not, I also wonder if you are
not emptying your recycle bin, since I suspect it may have an effect
on the clipboard.

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Clarification of Question by abcd12345-ga on 25 Aug 2003 11:26 PDT

The code that we have written is in VBA. The link that you sent had
some comments about how to send information to the clipboard. Do you
know why the clipboard cannot be emptied pops up. Does it have to do
with the memory on the machine?

Each time, we try to open clipboard, empty it, and then go ahead and
use the clipboard. Emptying it is important since the pasting is done
in a loop and we don't want data from the previous clipboard to be
pasted on the new file that is being created.

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Clarification of Question by abcd12345-ga on 08 Sep 2003 10:43 PDT

I do not have Dragon Naturally Speaking in my startup. I do not have
it installed. What kind of software is this?

I'm thinking your error may be caused by EmptyClipboard or one of the
function calls before it.

I was recently writing a C program that uses the clipboard. In C, each
of the clipboard functions has a special way to return an error code.

I suggest you carefully read the documentation on these functions. You
appear to be using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and I'm not
familiar with how that works.

However, the following pages may be helpful to you.

  How to Send Information to the Clipboard
  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q138/9/09.asp&NoWebContent=1

    Shows how to send information to the clipboard using VBA.
    Seems to be written for Microsoft Access, but in VBA code.


  MSDN: Clipboard 
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/dataexchange/clipboard.asp

    This set of pages from the MSDN gives documents the clipboard
    functions in C. These functions may be similar to the VBA ones...

The recycle bin is entirely empty.  I don't think any of the automatic
processes use it.

The page file size is 3108 MB, and the setting is "Optimize for
Background Processes" instead of optimize for Applications.  I imagine
any background processes that are running would be the same across all
environments - this is a clean, production environment piece of
hardware.

Is adjusting page file size or the optimization setting an option?

This happens to me when I am using Dragon Naturally Speaking which is
in my startup and is open before I open excel.

My solution is to close Dragon and reopen it with excel open.