My Excel speadsheet freezes (delays) when scrolling through cells

Not sure why this occurs.

I added some pictures to a spreadsheet I use frequently and noticed right away
that excels seems to get hung (or very slow to open, delay)
for a few minutes when I open that spreadsheet.

Now if I go back and delete the pictures it still gets hung. Even if I delete the rows,
it's still gets hung and I continue to get the Excel message that says,
"Excel not responding". It usually takes about 5/10 seconds to go away.

Is there someway to clear this out or delete something or start over?
This seems very unusual.
Please advise.

No it is not unusual. Excel has always done this with data and images etc.
It depends on how complex your file is but starting almost from fresh is the way to sort this if it is still happening when you re-open Excel.

- create a new file and
- create all the same worksheets
- copy and paste all your data,formula and formats into new sheets- select only the data area not the whole sheet each time
- compare old and new filesize

If all photos were inserted in a single sheet, you could perhaps try creating a new sheet, pasting the data area into it from the original sheet, and deleting the original sheet - (do not know if this will work, but it might)

Thanks for responding.
Yes, Excel still hangs even when I exit the program and restart it.
I've also tried copying the entire sheet but the problem is still there.
I'm just hoping I don't have to rebuild the entire spreadsheet cell by cell
or even copy each cell over and over.

Any advice is appreciated.

Is there a way to delete any memory for just pictures?

Bite the bullet. It is quicker and less problematic in long run.
When an Excel file hits this type of issue it has a habit of coming back and biting you later. Usually in the form of a damaging crash when you least want it.

I am assuming that the photos were only in a limited number of sheets. So you could try the following.
Copy the file and save it under a new name (FileX)
- see if you can open it without any problems (unlikely!)
Then take FileX and delete all the sheets where you placed photos and save again under a new name (FileY)
- see if you can open it without any problems (may work)
- if problems persist ACCEPT IT and START AGAIN! (you should be able to copy and paste from most of the sheets)
- otherwise if all is ok, add missing sheet names to FileY
- copy and paste only the data area from the original file into the missing sheets
- do NOT save FileY but save as FileZ
- close and open FileZ and see if it is problem free
If not, the go back to FileY and re-create the missing sheets