MS Powerpoint has stopped playing vids and audio...?

Hello all,

Please help me here...! I'm absolutely baffled and an answer is crucial to me continuing to do well in my job.

I've been using MS Powerpoint for many, many years. I'm presently using the 2002 edition and have recently been creating a series of slideshows featuring video and audio clips.

I created about three of the series without any problems whatsoever but now, all of a sudden, whenever I insert a video or audio clip into a slide, it absolutely refuses to play! I've checked what file the program is pointing to, the playing sequence and the instructions for playback, the possibility of unusual file types, clicking directly on the inserted file, checking I have updated movie codecs and other ways of presenting the file but I just cannot seem to get any audio or video to work anymore! The old ones work fine but the new ones just will not play.

Whilst the audio doesn't show any kind of symptom of any sort, the video does have one quirk - the screen goes completely white and freezes!

Is this a bug or something? Has anyone else experienced it? Is there a codec that I'm perhaps missing?

Please help. This is vital for me! Thanks for anything you can possibly suggest,

Steve

 

Can you insert one of your old vids into a brand new ppt ?

 

Actually, yes. For most of them at least. But if you're thinking it may be something to do with the software I occasionally use to convert files into smaller formats then I know for a fact that I've followed the same process for two of the files and got the opposite result to each other. Unless, of course, you had something else in mind...?

I thought you were on to something there as the newer files were definitely the more troublesome ones and yet there is one older video file from a previous presentation that doesn't play anymore in the new presentation whilst another that is slightly newer plays without any problems.

I AM getting repeated problems with Windows failing to load first time (for which I have filed literally thousands of reports to Microsoft with absolutely zero results). This means that I guess sometimes my load settings may be different on one boot-up from another...any ideas?

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It's seriously screwing with my professional life.

 

I've never come across this fault, so I asked around my media contacts and they haven't either.

Since this is mission critical I would simply reinstall Powerpoint at this stage.

 

Good point Plodr, this may be a media player issue or even a Windows one.

What other problems are you experiencing?
Have you done housekeepiing lately?
(Disk cleanup, defrag....etc)
How full is your disk? Simple deleting lots of temp files may help.

 

If this really is due to my Windows problems then I seriously doubt anyone will be able to help me. I am now sending a default message to Microsoft when error reporting which goes as shown below.

I don't really experience that many issues but I stepped up my housekeeping with more regular virus scanning, defragging and so on lately when I realised I'd gone for more than a fortnight having done such things (although my McAfee virus scanner performs automatic scans). I occasionally play the odd game that locks up but it's mainly to do with crashing and restarting when loading or, more frequently, in the middle of an operation.

Here's my generic MS error report that I just paste into the report section now:

"Please provide a solution that works! I have had this problem for almost two years and, after filing an error report virtually every day of those two years, pains-taking adherence to the recommended advice, two complete, exhaustive and time-consuming Windows reinstallations, begging and pleading with Microsoft for feedback from every approach I could find (without a single reply), independent advice from various sources and an ever-diminishing functionality of my machine that is only maintained to a workable level through tweaking and careful use of various software, I am still experiencing failed initial boot-ups that often take two or three efforts to get going. In addition, random shutdowns in the middle of operations are increasingly common. My name is ______ and my email address is _________ . Please help. I am now automating these messages to save myself time. Please note that in the event of complete failure to operate, I will be buying a Macintosh without hesitation."

I doubt that this minor error will have been influenced by this. Although it's very likely to gradually degrade my machine's functionality, the strange thing is that I had been doing these presentations perfectly happily for quite some time and now it's suddenly stopped. I can't think that it's because of anything I've just recently installed because I really wasn't using my machine much besides doing these presentations at the time.

Suffice to say that I'm extremely angry at Microsoft and I mean what I say when I say I will not be supporting them anymore. I know they can't answer many enquiries given the sheer volume of users but their customer service is nonetheless shockingly bad if they can't at least respond to one of my millions of reports!

 

Once, when walking across Exmoor, I cam across an ancient stone circle.
In the cente was slab with a human skeleton sprawled on it, dried up and almost crumbled away.
It wasn't Jonny Depp but the inscription carved into the slab read
"Still waiting for microsoft to answer my query - I have faith"

Detail a summary of the problems, we may be able to help.

 

Steve,

I'd do the following:
- shutdown any running software
- delete all temp files from these two folders
c:\windows\temp\
c:\documents and settings\your username\local settings\temp

Then I'd find the latest 'graphics card driver' from either
www.nvidia.com or www.ati.com

Then I'd reboot

Then I'd put a movie file (that you know worked previously)

in this folder
c:\testing\

Then in powerpoint

insert menu > movies > from file
navigate to that folder (testing)

insert the clip
view the slideshow?

What happens?

If it fails - be sure to read through this page
http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm
and
http://www.playsforcertain.com/tutorial.htm

then if you are still having no luck - visit
http://www.playsforcertain.com

Cheers
TAJ Simmons

 

Thanks, guys!

I can't do all of that right now but I'll certainly check it out once I get some time to myself. I know I can rely on people from these forums. Every time I have a problem someone here comes up with something. This place really should get an award or a collective sainthood!

 

Sound file needs to be in same folder as the powerpoint.