Powerpoint keeps crashing

[Herb]

I have a long-standing problem with Powerpoint 2000.

On my Windows 2000 system, Powerpoint 2000 invariably crashes after an
apparently random period of time, if I open Powerpoint files by either
double-clicking on them or via Start/Documents.

On the other hand, the program doesn't crash if I open Powerpoint first
and then open files from within the application.

Is this a known problem and is there a cure?

Running an MS Office Repair and installing the Office 2000 service packs
did not cure the problem.

Thank you.

Herbert Eppel

 

[Guest]

Hello Herb,

It might be a file association problem. See:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00355.htm

 

[Herb]

Hello Herb,

It might be a file association problem. See:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00355.htm

Thanks for the link.

However, as I said, Powerpoint 2000 does in fact start up OK when I
double-click a ppt file, and it runs alright for a while (very roughly
for about 20 minutes, to give you an idea), and then it simply crashes
out of the blue, even if there is no user interaction!

Do you think it could still be a file association problem?

Regards

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Since you specified that it only happens when you click on a file to open it
and not when you open the file after starting PPT first, then yes, this
points directly to a file association problem.

If your PowerPoint installation is part of an OFFICE installation, you might
also want to run Detect and Repair on the other applications and make sure
your W2K updates are all current as well.
--
Thanks,
Glenna Shaw
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team
http://www.pptmagic.com

 

[Herb]

Since you specified that it only happens when you click on a file to open it
and not when you open the file after starting PPT first, then yes, this
points directly to a file association problem.

If your PowerPoint installation is part of an OFFICE installation, you might
also want to run Detect and Repair on the other applications and make sure
your W2K updates are all current as well.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, my W2K is fully up to date, and so are all my Office 2000 elements,
as far as I am aware, but I'll check again to make sure.

I'll also implement the suggestion from the link you posted in your
earlier reply, and I'll report back once I've done that.

Regards

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Herb]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, my W2K is fully up to date, and so are all my Office 2000 elements,
as far as I am aware, but I'll check again to make sure.

I'll also implement the suggestion from the link you posted in your
earlier reply, and I'll report back once I've done that.

I ran "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Powerpnt.exe" /regserver
as suggested at http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00355.htm, but
Powerpoint just crashed again :-(

It is interesting to note that during the re-registration procedure I
was asked for the Office 2000 *SR1* CD, which I don't have, i.e. I have
the Office 2000 CD and upgraded to SR1 via the web some time ago.

Do you think this is significant?

Do you have any other ideas for rectifying the situation?

It isn't really a problem as such, as long as I remember not to
double-click on ppt files, but I like to iron out these kinds of little
annoyances.

Thank you.

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Echo S]

Regarding something you said later in the thread, I don't know if the fact
that you're being asked for your Office 2000 SP1 disk is significant or not.
You might try just putting in the regular Office 2000 disk you have and see
what happens.

I think it's interesting that you've been able to pinpoint the crash
behaviour enough to link it to how you opened PPT. Nice detective work!
What's weird is the random amount of time before it crashes. I wonder what
happens differently between opening PPT from Start|Programs and opening by
double-clicking a document or using Start|Documents. Well, I guess PPT then
opens with a blank presentation as opposed to with a specific "already
created" presentation. But since your problem is long-standing, I assume it
happens with more than one specific "already created" presentation.

I would try these troubleshooting steps.

1. With PPT closed, search for your *.PCB file. This is the PPT toolbar, and
if it gets corrupted or really large, strange things can happen. Rename the
file to *.PXX or *.OLD or something. (You will lose any toolbar
customizations you may have made, but you can add them back later.) See if
PPT is better behaved.

2. Check for problem add-ins. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00655.htm
has instructions for how to figure out what add-ins are loaded. I would
disable all of these and see if PPT behaves properly. If so, I'd add the
add-ins back one at a time until I could figure out which was causing the
problem.

If you want to list your add-ins here (use the Ctrl+Shift+C tip on the FAQ
to copy the add-in messagebox info and then paste it in a reply post), we
can help you disable them fairly painlessly.

 

[Herb]

Regarding something you said later in the thread, I don't know if the fact
that you're being asked for your Office 2000 SP1 disk is significant or not.
You might try just putting in the regular Office 2000 disk you have and see
what happens.

Thanks for your reply.

I did in fact put in the regular Office 2000 disk when it asked for the
Office 2000 SP1 disk (sorry, I should have made that clear), and the
re-registration process appeared to continue, although there was no
indication that it completed successfully, so I'm not sure.

I think it's interesting that you've been able to pinpoint the crash
behaviour enough to link it to how you opened PPT. Nice detective work!
What's weird is the random amount of time before it crashes. I wonder what

Actually, now that you mention it, it might in fact not be random!

I haven't measured the time properly, but if you think it would help
diagnose the problem I'll get my stop watch out and do some more testing

happens differently between opening PPT from Start|Programs and opening by
double-clicking a document or using Start|Documents. Well, I guess PPT then
opens with a blank presentation as opposed to with a specific "already
created" presentation. But since your problem is long-standing, I assume it
happens with more than one specific "already created" presentation.

Yes, the problem is definitely not confined to a specific ppt file - I
have had this problem for several years, but I can't remember the
circumstances under which it first appeared.

I would try these troubleshooting steps.

1. With PPT closed, search for your *.PCB file. This is the PPT toolbar, and
if it gets corrupted or really large, strange things can happen. Rename the
file to *.PXX or *.OLD or something. (You will lose any toolbar
customizations you may have made, but you can add them back later.) See if
PPT is better behaved.

Thanks, I'll try that - I don't think I have customised my toolbar, so I
shouldn't lose anything.

2. Check for problem add-ins. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00655.htm
has instructions for how to figure out what add-ins are loaded. I would
disable all of these and see if PPT behaves properly. If so, I'd add the
add-ins back one at a time until I could figure out which was causing the
problem.

If you want to list your add-ins here (use the Ctrl+Shift+C tip on the FAQ
to copy the add-in messagebox info and then paste it in a reply post), we
can help you disable them fairly painlessly.

Thanks for the instructions - see below for result.

By the way, I wasn't aware of Ctrl+Shift+C for copying message box
content - is this a standard Office/Windows feature?

---------------------------
Microsoft PowerPoint
---------------------------
Standard Add-ins

================


COM Add-ins

============

msodraa9.ShapeSelect

Microsoft Office Accessibility Add-In for Drawing

Places.PowerPoint

Places Add-In


---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Regards

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Echo S]

Thanks for your reply.

I did in fact put in the regular Office 2000 disk when it asked for the
Office 2000 SP1 disk (sorry, I should have made that clear), and the
re-registration process appeared to continue, although there was no
indication that it completed successfully, so I'm not sure.

You're welcome, and I suspect that the registration did complete
successfully. I was hoping re-registering would take care of the problem!

Actually, now that you mention it, it might in fact not be random!

I haven't measured the time properly, but if you think it would help
diagnose the problem I'll get my stop watch out and do some more testing

LOL! I don't think we need anything that definite! What I was thinking is
that maybe some background application is kicking in, and that's what's
causing PPT to crash. So, although it might be random from when PPT is open,
it might not be random from when, say, you booted up that morning. I suspect
you would have noticed if PPT crashes every day around 2:00, though.

However, you might keep an eye on it -- if PPT regularly crashes after
around X amount of time, that might be a clue.

I also meant to ask -- do you get any kind of error message? That might give
us some clues.

Thanks for the instructions - see below for result.

By the way, I wasn't aware of Ctrl+Shift+C for copying message box
content - is this a standard Office/Windows feature?

Well, you know, it's funny you ask that. Steve (Rindsberg, keeper of the
FAQ) and I were Skyping the other day, and we were looking at this FAQ --
wanted to give people an easy way to run the code and get the info to us. He
typed in that Ctrl+Shift+C thing and I was like, "I've heard about that a
gazillion times, but I guess I can't ever remember the right keys! It never
works for me! Windows always just dings at me when I try to use it!" Steve
said, "Yeah, yeah, just ignore the ding and Ctrl+V into Notepad or
something, and it still pastes." Heh. Guess I never tried that part.
<slapping forehead> I'm conditioned to the Windows ding. How sad is that.
<shaking head>

Anyway, he did mention that this works for, mmmm, message boxes, but not
dialog boxes -- like the ones where you see yes|no|cancel. So all I can
suggest is try it when you need it -- it just may work.

---------------------------
Microsoft PowerPoint
---------------------------
Standard Add-ins

================

COM Add-ins

============

msodraa9.ShapeSelect

Microsoft Office Accessibility Add-In for Drawing

Places.PowerPoint

Places Add-In

mmmm, I think these are all Microsoft add-ins. Interesting. I'd disable them
and see if it resolves the issue.

I think the easiest way to disable these will be to close PPT and then head
to Start|Run, type regedit and do a search in the registry (Ctrl+F) for
msodraa9, places, and, mmmm, I'm not sure what for the accessibility add-in.
Maybe search for drawing for that one. When you find them, right-click the
add-in folder on the left, choose Rename, and add XXX to the name. For
example, I have Vox Proxy loaded here. In my registsry, it shows up as
VPTools.Connect. I can disable it by renaming it to VPTools.XXXConnect.
Using XXX makes it easy for me to find later and name back properly to
re-enable the add-in. I think you'll find most of the COM add-ins in the
registry under these keys:

hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\office\powerpoint\addins
hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\powerpoint\addins

I'm sure you know to back up your registry before mucking around in there!

 

[Herb]

I also meant to ask -- do you get any kind of error message? That might give
us some clues.

No specific error message - just the standard "Powerpoint has
encountered an error..." message. I think it also creates an error log,
but I'm never sure where to find these and whether they are of any
practical use.

Well, you know, it's funny you ask that. Steve (Rindsberg, keeper of the
FAQ) and I were Skyping the other day, and we were looking at this FAQ --
wanted to give people an easy way to run the code and get the info to us. He
typed in that Ctrl+Shift+C thing and I was like, "I've heard about that a
gazillion times, but I guess I can't ever remember the right keys! It never
works for me! Windows always just dings at me when I try to use it!" Steve
said, "Yeah, yeah, just ignore the ding and Ctrl+V into Notepad or
something, and it still pastes." Heh. Guess I never tried that part.
<slapping forehead> I'm conditioned to the Windows ding. How sad is that.
<shaking head>

Try turning of your speakers to avoid the Windows ding

Anyway, he did mention that this works for, mmmm, message boxes, but not
dialog boxes -- like the ones where you see yes|no|cancel. So all I can
suggest is try it when you need it -- it just may work.

Thanks - I'll make a note of the shortcut - if it works consistently for
me it will no doubt come in useful!

re-enable the add-in. I think you'll find most of the COM add-ins in the
registry under these keys:

hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\office\powerpoint\addins
hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\powerpoint\addins

I'm sure you know to back up your registry before mucking around in there!

Thanks for the add-in info. However, before I go ahead with it, I should
mention that just after my previous reply I changed *.PCB to *.PCB.OLD
as you suggested, then opened a ppt file by double-clicking, and guess
what: Powerpoint is still running, 1 hour and 20 minutes after I started
it! I'm 90% sure that's a record since the problem first started.

It would therefore appear (although it is too early to be sure, of
course) that your suggestion has fixed the problem, in which case you
would no doubt deserve a medal or something!

Regards

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Echo S]

Try turning of your speakers to avoid the Windows ding
LOLOL!

Thanks for the add-in info. However, before I go ahead with it, I should
mention that just after my previous reply I changed *.PCB to *.PCB.OLD as
you suggested, then opened a ppt file by double-clicking, and guess what:
Powerpoint is still running, 1 hour and 20 minutes after I started it! I'm
90% sure that's a record since the problem first started.

It would therefore appear (although it is too early to be sure, of course)
that your suggestion has fixed the problem, in which case you would no
doubt deserve a medal or something!

Great! If renaming your *.PCB file fixed it (at least for now), then I
wouldn't worry about disabling the add-ins. Keep an eye on it and cross your
fingers!

So you've been crashing before an hour for the past <long time>? You poor
thing!

 

[Herb]

Great! If renaming your *.PCB file fixed it (at least for now), then I
wouldn't worry about disabling the add-ins. Keep an eye on it and cross your
fingers!

Well, it's almost 2 hours now, and Powerpoint is still running - with
every minute we are a step closer to certainty

So you've been crashing before an hour for the past <long time>? You poor
thing!

The situation isn't (or hopefully wasn't) *that* bad - after all, the
crashes only happen(ed?) when I double-click on a ppt file. For proper
editing I simply have/had to remember to open Powerpoint first, although
on a few occasions I did lose some work when I had accidentally opened a
ppt file 'the wrong way'.

By the way, I say Samurai (or at least part of it!) on your website and
I thought you might be interested in this:
http://album3368.fotopic.net/p322854.html

Regards

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Herb]

Regarding something you said later in the thread, I don't know if the fact
that you're being asked for your Office 2000 SP1 disk is significant or not.
You might try just putting in the regular Office 2000 disk you have and see
what happens.

I think it's interesting that you've been able to pinpoint the crash
behaviour enough to link it to how you opened PPT. Nice detective work!

Sadly, my euphoria was premature, i.e. Powerpoint crashed again this
morning.

The crashes seems to be triggered by certain keystrokes in other,
unrelated applications, but I haven't been able to establish a
definitive connection yet.

Any further thoughts on this?

Regards

Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

No specific error message - just the standard "Powerpoint has
encountered an error..." message. I think it also creates an error log,
but I'm never sure where to find these and whether they are of any
practical use.

It might be worth looking at the Windows Application log. Rightclick My
Computer, choose Manage and open Event Viewer.

Try turning of your speakers to avoid the Windows ding

Then she wouldn't be able to hear my dulcet tones when I explain this stuff to
her over Skype. :-(

Thanks - I'll make a note of the shortcut - if it works consistently for
me it will no doubt come in useful!

It should work for any standard message box, but if an application creates its
own message boxes using forms, all bets are off.

 

[Echo S]

Sadly, my euphoria was premature, i.e. Powerpoint crashed again this
morning.

The crashes seems to be triggered by certain keystrokes in other,
unrelated applications, but I haven't been able to establish a definitive
connection yet.

Any further thoughts on this?

Well, poop. I was hoping we'd totally resolved the issue.

Nice detective work regarding the keystrokes in other apps. It might be
that, or it might just be something to do with those particular apps. All I
can say is keep an eye on it, and perhaps something will jump out at your or
at least give some clues.

Wonder if it's resources-related?

 

[Echo S]

By the way, I say Samurai (or at least part of it!) on your website and I
thought you might be interested in this:
http://album3368.fotopic.net/p322854.html

What a cutie!

I'm fostering one right now who likes to hide in my washing machine, of all
places!

Echo

 

[Herb]

It might be worth looking at the Windows Application log. Rightclick My
Computer, choose Manage and open Event Viewer.

Thanks - would it be under "Application" in Event Viewer?

I can't see anything relevant in there :-(

Then she wouldn't be able to hear my dulcet tones when I explain this stuff to
her over Skype. :-(


It should work for any standard message box, but if an application creates its
own message boxes using forms, all bets are off.

Thanks, I made a note of Ctrl+Shift+C

Regards

Herbert Eppel

 

[Herb]

Well, poop. I was hoping we'd totally resolved the issue.

Nice detective work regarding the keystrokes in other apps. It might be
that, or it might just be something to do with those particular apps. All I
can say is keep an eye on it, and perhaps something will jump out at your or
at least give some clues.

Yes, I'll keep an eye on it and report back if I detect anything that
might be significant.

Wonder if it's resources-related?

I doubt it - my Win2000 PC has a 1.8 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM, and
I generally try and keep the system in top shape.

Regards

Herbert Eppel

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks - would it be under "Application" in Event Viewer?

I can't see anything relevant in there :-(

Yep, that's the one but ... no joy. O well.