Windows – 64-bit Excel 2010 Solver – Solver32.dll not found

64-bitmicrosoft excelwindows 7

I am trying to use Solver in 64-bit Excel 2010.

When I run Solver, it opens the solver window, states that it has results and then popups the following error message:

Run-time error '53'

File not found: Solver32.dll

So, it would seem that the Solver32.dll cannot be loaded. It is however, available in the Solver Directory – i.e. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\Library\SOLVER contains SOLVER.XLAM and SOLVER32.dll

What have I tried so far…?

  • did a full Office 2010 Repair

  • this Microsoft forum suggested copying the Solver32.dll to C:\Windows\SysWOW64 (which is where Windows 7 stores it's 32-bit dlls).

  • this forum suggested installing the Solver add-in (.xlam and .dll) to ..\AppData..\Microsoft\AddIns

I have tried both of these and neither of them worked…

Best Answer

I just ran into this problem as well, though I'm using Excel 2013.

Here's what I did to solve the problem:

  1. Go to File > Options > Add-Ins > Manage Add-Ins Go Button (at the bottom)
  2. Uncheck Solver add in (in other words, remove it)
  3. Completely close all Excel spreadsheets and programs
  4. Open Excel
  5. Follow step one again
  6. Add solver back to Excel

For some reason this worked for me. It's important to completely close Excel (as noted in step 3): when I did this without closing excel, it didn't work.

Hopefully this helps someone in the future, since I doubt the original user still has this problem.

Related Question