Avoid issues setting excel linkobject connection?

our excelLink connection with Wolfram quit communicating. have uninstalled and reinstalled but no luck. error message "unable to communicate with closed link LinkObject[“c:\programdata\mathematica\applications\ExcelLink\Binaries\ExcelLink.exe”, 1175, 10]. and "Argument LinkObject[“c:\programdata\mathematica\applications\ExcelLink\Binaries\ExcelLink.exe”, 1175, 10] in LinkClose[LinkObject[“c:\ProgramData\Mathematica\Applications\ExcelLink\Binaries\ExcelLink.exe”, 1175, 10] has an invalid LinkObject number; the link may be closed.