Thank you for pointing me to on/off Auto Calculation. In this instance
turning off Auto Calc. helps ease the grind, to rescucitate a wkbk by
transferring data out into another wkbk. But since I posted to the group,
I've discovered something more insidious than possibly tight ram  which is
tearing up my Excel wkbks, it is the Smartdraw pgm which, after I uninstall
it as a program and then yank it as an office ad-in, has now made itself
into a System File and is still shutting down my Excel.