Created attachment 23369 [details]
The excel file giving the problems described in the bug report

I forgot to include the following information 
 
Computer PIV 2.6GHZ, 1GB RAM 
OS Linux 2.4.27 
KDE 3.2.2 
 
I did not verify on windows 

Checked on Windows XP SP2.
Ten seconds on my Centrino with 1,3GHz. That's quite normal for OOo. No signs of
 hanging up.

Maybe(!) the point is, that drawing the diagram takes so long. This is/would be
a well-known issue and is already reported. (Don't have the issue number at hand
right now.)

The drawing problem is related with the data area selected for display. It's not
only the three columns on the left but also several lines(!) behind the diagram
(hidden from view, so to speak). Removing them (right click on diagram-> "Change
data sources" or something like that) makes the diagram display correctly.

Please check that yourself and give feedback if that solves some issue.

Matthias:  
  
Before trying anything I opened the file and the status bar says   
"calculating" the who time until the spreadsheet is loaded.   
  
This could support your hypothesis that it is not the loading but   
the laying out that is the problem.  
  
I then edited the data range to include only the three columns.  
The diagram looks better now, it does not include the extra data  
anymore.  
Then I saved in ots format.  
  
This helped, it opens at normal speed now.  
  
Note that the diagram looked right in excel 97 (in which I created it)  
so do you think the selection of the extraneous column was actually   
caused by an import error?  
  
And the diagram still looks different from excel, which shows a continuous  
line for the blue and red lines. But your tip definitely helped!  
  
Additional info:  
  
After I saved the spreadheet to ots format, Openoffice 
crashed (no recovery started).  
Oh well, if that happens again I will file another bug report.  
  
Thanks for your help.  

That's what I suspected.

>Note that the diagram looked right in excel 97 (in which I created it)  
>so do you think the selection of the extraneous column was actually   
>caused by an import error? 

The 5 extra lines were not created by OOo. They appear in the ExcelViewer as well.
However the diagram in OOo interprets the (indeed strange) data selection ranges
wronly. I could reproduce this with a test chart.

What to do now?
1.) I will close this issue. The original speed problem is obviously not a
problem of OOo. The issue of long rendering time for diagrams is already known,
so there's no need for us to pursue this further.

2.) Concerning the import problem mentioned above: I opened a new issue for
this: issue 44648 if you care.

3.) Regarding the crash:
     a) Check if you can reproduce it. If you can:
     b) Check it's not already reported (a duplicate). If not yet reported:
     c) Create a separate issue for it and attach the doc to it if necessary.

Thanks a lot.

Closed because original problem is partly only because of "strange" sample
document, partly already known (diagram speed issue).