PowerPoint 2000 suddenly slow / hangs

[TC Perconti]

Hello all.

Out of the blue, PowerPoint now becomes incredibly slow/hangs whenever I
attempt ANY modification to an existing presentation or when trying to
create/alter a new slide in a new presentation. If I have TaskMgr running
before starting PowerPoint, then when PPT hangs, I can toggle between
TaskMgr and PPT and eventually (30-45 seconds) see any keyboard changes. If
I start TaskMgr after PPT hangs, TM reports that PPT is using 99% of the
CPU.

This is very bizarre. I've been using PPT without problems for 3 months. No
software was recently added and my AntiVirus Software (Avast!) has not
reported any virii. SpyBot Search and Destroy, Adaware, and Yahoo! Anti-Spy
all report clean.

I am running PowerPoint 2000 on Windows XP Professional on an IBM Thinkpad.
Excel, Word, Outlook, all work properly.

I have tried uninstalling, rebooting, and reinstalling Office 2000. I've
tried upgrading to the latest Office service pack.

I've been scouring the newsgroups and forums attempting any and all
suggestions for anything related to "the SLOWS".
I have tried the suggestions on the oft-mentioned
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00114.htm Even when running MSCONFIG
and booting with everything unchecked, PPT still hangs as soon as I attempt
to make a modification (ie. change text in a text box, add a circle, etc.
ANYTHING).

Any additional recommendations are greatly appreciated... thanks!

 

[Echo S]

I would try the following.

1. Make sure you have a printer driver installed and set as default. See
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00034.htm for specifics on that.

2. Make sure that Avast doesn't have any kind of Office plug-in. Norton, for
example, has one that often causes issues. See
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00387.htm

3. Turn down your hardware acceleration. (Shot in the dark, but won't hurt.
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00129.htm )

4. Delete your *.PCB file. This is the PPT toolbar. You'll lose any
customizations to your toolbars; PPT will recreate the basic toolbar
configuration the next time you start it.

 

[Sonia]

If you still have problems after Echo's suggestions, delete everything in your
Temp folder, clean out the Recycle bin, and defrag your hard drive. It's like
chicken soup. Can't hurt and always helps whatever ails ya.

 

[TC Perconti]

Thanks Sonia and Echo S for your suggestions. I tried all of your
suggestions but the problem remains. This is really bizarre. Are there
any diagnostic tools that can help isolate what is going on?

Thanks.

 

[Echo S]

Well, crud.

Does PPT hang on all existing presentations, or just this one? Does it hang
on a new, blank presentation?

Have you tried totally disabling Avast? Maybe try that as a troubleshooting
test.

Also, I know you said you went through the FAQ suggestions, but just to
reconfirm -- do you have any add-ins loaded in PPT? Maybe try renaming any
*.PPA files on your system to *.OLD as another troubleshooting step. See if
PPT opens and works as it should after disabling those. If it does, you can
rename them back to PPA one at a time to isolate the problem.

 

[TC Perconti]

Well, crud.
Does PPT hang on all existing presentations, or just this one? Does it
hang
on a new, blank presentation?

It hangs on all. It hangs on ones that worked before. It hangs on a new,
blank presentation. Keep in mind that it loads any presentation just fine.
I can run a slideshow. i can click on the outline to display different
slides but the moment I try typing in a textbox, or resizing a rectangle
object, or modifying the slide in ANY manner, then the harddrive light goes
solid for 2-3 seconds and PPT immediately becomes unresponsive/hangs.

Have you tried totally disabling Avast? Maybe try that as a
troubleshooting
test.

Yes. I had Avast totally disabled.

Also, I know you said you went through the FAQ suggestions, but just to
reconfirm -- do you have any add-ins loaded in PPT? Maybe try renaming any
*.PPA files on your system to *.OLD as another troubleshooting step. See
if
PPT opens and works as it should after disabling those. If it does, you
can
rename them back to PPA one at a time to isolate the problem.

I have no add-ins. There was one .ppa file, (ppttools.ppa) and I renamed it
to *.old. Whether it was .ppa or .old, the same thing happened to PPT.

The strange thing is that it happened right in the middle of a presentation
I was working on.... I just finished editing slide #24 (each slide had a
single textbox that was ....
OH WAIT!!!!

While I was composing this post I was fiddling with the options in PPT.... I
went through.... very sluggishly, unchecking a lot of options, tapped
"OK".... now PowerPoint is back to normal!!! whoa!

Since I modifed about a dozen different options I don't know which one (if
only one) caused it to free up. The odd thing is that I never changed any
of the options!

.... Ah, FOUND IT!!!!

For some reason, having Tools -> Options -> Save -> "Save autoRecover info
every [10] minutes" checked causes PowerPoint to hang on my system. Why
this would happen all of a sudden, I don't know. but if I uncheck it,
PowerPoint works fine.

Again, thank you very much for all of your assistance. It might be a good
idea to add this to the list of potential fixes for others.

 

[Sonia]

There must be more to it because I always have AutoRecover set to 10 mins. How
large is your presentation? Do you have Fast Saves on?

Well, crud.
Does PPT hang on all existing presentations, or just this one? Does it hang
on a new, blank presentation?

It hangs on all. It hangs on ones that worked before. It hangs on a new,
blank presentation. Keep in mind that it loads any presentation just fine. I
can run a slideshow. i can click on the outline to display different slides
but the moment I try typing in a textbox, or resizing a rectangle object, or
modifying the slide in ANY manner, then the harddrive light goes solid for 2-3
seconds and PPT immediately becomes unresponsive/hangs.

Have you tried totally disabling Avast? Maybe try that as a troubleshooting
test.

Yes. I had Avast totally disabled.

Also, I know you said you went through the FAQ suggestions, but just to
reconfirm -- do you have any add-ins loaded in PPT? Maybe try renaming any
*.PPA files on your system to *.OLD as another troubleshooting step. See if
PPT opens and works as it should after disabling those. If it does, you can
rename them back to PPA one at a time to isolate the problem.

I have no add-ins. There was one .ppa file, (ppttools.ppa) and I renamed it
to *.old. Whether it was .ppa or .old, the same thing happened to PPT.

The strange thing is that it happened right in the middle of a presentation I
was working on.... I just finished editing slide #24 (each slide had a single
textbox that was ....
OH WAIT!!!!

While I was composing this post I was fiddling with the options in PPT.... I
went through.... very sluggishly, unchecking a lot of options, tapped "OK"....
now PowerPoint is back to normal!!! whoa!

Since I modifed about a dozen different options I don't know which one (if
only one) caused it to free up. The odd thing is that I never changed any of
the options!

... Ah, FOUND IT!!!!

For some reason, having Tools -> Options -> Save -> "Save autoRecover info
every [10] minutes" checked causes PowerPoint to hang on my system. Why this
would happen all of a sudden, I don't know. but if I uncheck it, PowerPoint
works fine.

Again, thank you very much for all of your assistance. It might be a good
idea to add this to the list of potential fixes for others.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

For some reason, having Tools -> Options -> Save -> "Save autoRecover info

every [10] minutes" checked causes PowerPoint to hang on my system. Why
this would happen all of a sudden, I don't know. but if I uncheck it,
PowerPoint works fine.

Again, thank you very much for all of your assistance. It might be a good
idea to add this to the list of potential fixes for others.

Done. Thanks for reporting the solution.

 

[Echo S]

Thanks for reporting back with what worked for you, TC.

Just for the record, I, like Sonia, have autorecover set to every 10 minutes
in PPT 2000, and I don't have this issue either. There must be some wonky
combination of something on your system that causes that setting to hang PPT
for you.

At any rate, I'm glad you got it working again!

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

Well, crud.
Does PPT hang on all existing presentations, or just this one? Does it
hang
on a new, blank presentation?

It hangs on all. It hangs on ones that worked before. It hangs on a new,
blank presentation. Keep in mind that it loads any presentation just fine.
I can run a slideshow. i can click on the outline to display different
slides but the moment I try typing in a textbox, or resizing a rectangle
object, or modifying the slide in ANY manner, then the harddrive light goes
solid for 2-3 seconds and PPT immediately becomes unresponsive/hangs.

Have you tried totally disabling Avast? Maybe try that as a
troubleshooting
test.

Yes. I had Avast totally disabled.

Also, I know you said you went through the FAQ suggestions, but just to
reconfirm -- do you have any add-ins loaded in PPT? Maybe try renaming any
*.PPA files on your system to *.OLD as another troubleshooting step. See
if
PPT opens and works as it should after disabling those. If it does, you
can
rename them back to PPA one at a time to isolate the problem.

I have no add-ins. There was one .ppa file, (ppttools.ppa) and I renamed it
to *.old. Whether it was .ppa or .old, the same thing happened to PPT.

The strange thing is that it happened right in the middle of a presentation
I was working on.... I just finished editing slide #24 (each slide had a
single textbox that was ....
OH WAIT!!!!

While I was composing this post I was fiddling with the options in PPT.... I
went through.... very sluggishly, unchecking a lot of options, tapped
"OK".... now PowerPoint is back to normal!!! whoa!

Since I modifed about a dozen different options I don't know which one (if
only one) caused it to free up. The odd thing is that I never changed any
of the options!

... Ah, FOUND IT!!!!

For some reason, having Tools -> Options -> Save -> "Save autoRecover info
every [10] minutes" checked causes PowerPoint to hang on my system. Why
this would happen all of a sudden, I don't know. but if I uncheck it,
PowerPoint works fine.

Again, thank you very much for all of your assistance. It might be a good
idea to add this to the list of potential fixes for others.

 

[Kathy J]

TC:
When was the last time you cleaned up your hard drive? It may be that PPT is
having trouble finding a large enough place to put its temp files, etc. Try
a defrag and see if it makes a difference....

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

Well, crud.
Does PPT hang on all existing presentations, or just this one? Does it
hang
on a new, blank presentation?

It hangs on all. It hangs on ones that worked before. It hangs on a new,
blank presentation. Keep in mind that it loads any presentation just
fine. I can run a slideshow. i can click on the outline to display
different slides but the moment I try typing in a textbox, or resizing a
rectangle object, or modifying the slide in ANY manner, then the harddrive
light goes solid for 2-3 seconds and PPT immediately becomes
unresponsive/hangs.

Have you tried totally disabling Avast? Maybe try that as a
troubleshooting
test.

Yes. I had Avast totally disabled.

Also, I know you said you went through the FAQ suggestions, but just to
reconfirm -- do you have any add-ins loaded in PPT? Maybe try renaming
any
*.PPA files on your system to *.OLD as another troubleshooting step. See
if
PPT opens and works as it should after disabling those. If it does, you
can
rename them back to PPA one at a time to isolate the problem.

I have no add-ins. There was one .ppa file, (ppttools.ppa) and I renamed
it to *.old. Whether it was .ppa or .old, the same thing happened to
PPT.

The strange thing is that it happened right in the middle of a
presentation I was working on.... I just finished editing slide #24 (each
slide had a single textbox that was ....
OH WAIT!!!!

While I was composing this post I was fiddling with the options in PPT....
I went through.... very sluggishly, unchecking a lot of options, tapped
"OK".... now PowerPoint is back to normal!!! whoa!

Since I modifed about a dozen different options I don't know which one (if
only one) caused it to free up. The odd thing is that I never changed any
of the options!

... Ah, FOUND IT!!!!

For some reason, having Tools -> Options -> Save -> "Save autoRecover info
every [10] minutes" checked causes PowerPoint to hang on my system. Why
this would happen all of a sudden, I don't know. but if I uncheck it,
PowerPoint works fine.

Again, thank you very much for all of your assistance. It might be a good
idea to add this to the list of potential fixes for others.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

There must be more to it because I always have AutoRecover set to 10 mins. How
large is your presentation? Do you have Fast Saves on?

I'm wondering whether it's one of these deals where some Type A bit of the
anti-virus software hasn't learned about that old song "How can I miss you if you
won't go away?" and keeps hanging around even though the user's told the software
to take a rest.

 

[TC Perconti]

TC:
When was the last time you cleaned up your hard drive? It may be that PPT
is having trouble finding a large enough place to put its temp files, etc.
Try a defrag and see if it makes a difference....

I defragged 2 days ago at the recommendation of Sonia. Defragging made no
difference. It is also strange that AutoRecover was set and worked for
nearly 3 months prior to this incident.