Lol - as the saying goes ... "looks like no one touching this with a 10 foot pole".

Good news though the client found the problem.

They use an Excel addon called "Kutools for Excel 25.0" and found that to be the cause. Once disabled Excel Direct (ED) and Excel Direct Print (EDP) work well again. And so, they can simply disable the addon when required.

As another fyi, they used an older version of Kutools with Office 2010 and had no such issues. The new version coupled with Office 2016 isn't playing well with Adagio's ED and EDP.

Best regards, Pete