PowerPoint 2003 files very slow to open in 2007 on Vista

[Jerry M. Wright]

We are having problems with PowerPoint files created on XP machines in
Office 2003 taking extremely long times to open - 10 minutes or more - when
transferred to a Vista machine. Once open, we can save as .PPTX and the
file is well behaved on Vista and XP machines.

The problem seems to be specific to the combination of Vista and Office 2003
..PPT files. The same file .PPT file opened in PowerPoint 2007 on an XP
machine takes only seconds.

It doesn't matter if the file is opened from PowerPoint or if I double click
the file in windows explorer to open.

The file opening behavior is reproducible on both Vista machines.

These files have a lot of embedded graphics in the form of .JPG .TIFF and
others and appear to be the source of the problems. I can remove the
graphics, save in .PPT format and the file opens quickly in Vista.

The machines are Dell and I have checked for the latest available graphics
drivers.

Any suggestions on how to correct the problem are welcome.

Jerry M.Wright

 

[Echo S]

I would check 2 things.

1. What antivirus program do you use? Does it have an Office plug-in? If so,
disable that.

2. Do you have a Vista-certified printer driver installed on the computers?
You should be able to install one that ships with Vista (see instrux at
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00605.htm), and that may help speed things up,
believe it or not.

 

[Jerry M. Wright]

It was the printer. Removing it fixed the problem with opening time.
However, I've been unable to get the printer drivers to work properly with
these particular files. Since the only come in once in while it isn't too
much of a deal to remove the printer, convert the file and restore the
printer.

I would check 2 things.

1. What antivirus program do you use? Does it have an Office plug-in? If
so, disable that.

2. Do you have a Vista-certified printer driver installed on the
computers? You should be able to install one that ships with Vista (see
instrux at http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00605.htm), and that may help speed
things up, believe it or not.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

We are having problems with PowerPoint files created on XP machines in
Office 2003 taking extremely long times to open - 10 minutes or more -
when transferred to a Vista machine. Once open, we can save as .PPTX and
the file is well behaved on Vista and XP machines.

The problem seems to be specific to the combination of Vista and Office
2003 .PPT files. The same file .PPT file opened in PowerPoint 2007 on an
XP machine takes only seconds.

It doesn't matter if the file is opened from PowerPoint or if I double
click the file in windows explorer to open.

The file opening behavior is reproducible on both Vista machines.

These files have a lot of embedded graphics in the form of .JPG .TIFF and
others and appear to be the source of the problems. I can remove the
graphics, save in .PPT format and the file opens quickly in Vista.

The machines are Dell and I have checked for the latest available
graphics drivers.

Any suggestions on how to correct the problem are welcome.

Jerry M.Wright

 

[Echo S]

Wow, that's wild. Thanks for posting back!

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

It was the printer. Removing it fixed the problem with opening time.
However, I've been unable to get the printer drivers to work properly with
these particular files. Since the only come in once in while it isn't too
much of a deal to remove the printer, convert the file and restore the
printer.

I would check 2 things.

1. What antivirus program do you use? Does it have an Office plug-in? If
so, disable that.

2. Do you have a Vista-certified printer driver installed on the
computers? You should be able to install one that ships with Vista (see
instrux at http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00605.htm), and that may help speed
things up, believe it or not.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

We are having problems with PowerPoint files created on XP machines in
Office 2003 taking extremely long times to open - 10 minutes or more -
when transferred to a Vista machine. Once open, we can save as .PPTX
and the file is well behaved on Vista and XP machines.

The problem seems to be specific to the combination of Vista and Office
2003 .PPT files. The same file .PPT file opened in PowerPoint 2007 on
an XP machine takes only seconds.

It doesn't matter if the file is opened from PowerPoint or if I double
click the file in windows explorer to open.

The file opening behavior is reproducible on both Vista machines.

These files have a lot of embedded graphics in the form of .JPG .TIFF
and others and appear to be the source of the problems. I can remove
the graphics, save in .PPT format and the file opens quickly in Vista.

The machines are Dell and I have checked for the latest available
graphics drivers.

Any suggestions on how to correct the problem are welcome.

Jerry M.Wright

 

[Richard in AZ]

Thanks for that! It solves my problem. I tried to post a thread
request titled Powerpoint 2007 not responding. I use Vista and PPT 2007
on a Toshiba A200 laptop with plenty of grunt. Even so, PPT slowed to a
crawl. When I followed the suggestion, posted above, to delete the
printer (in my laptop's set-up it was an old printer) PPT operated
properly again.
And to think that I have spent 4 hours agonising over this! Now it all
seems so simple.

Thanks again.
BTW I can't find my thread so I guess in my extreme tiredness and
frustration I didn't manage to post it properly.

And by not including the original message in your reply, no one else got the benefit of the fix.