Crash Loop with PowerPoint and Projector

[Max]

Several members of my trainining team and I experience this problem with
several different brands of laptop and projectors.

PowerPoint 2003 and MS-Project Professional 2003 SP1 tend to interact badly.
When you try to simultaneously display PowerPoint 2003 and MS-Project 2003
on a projector, Project tends to go into an infinite crash and restart loop.
Project seems to do this whenever displayed on a projector, and the video
resolution is anything other than the default. I suspect PowerPoint 2003
changes the video resolution without telling us. Once Project Professional
2003 SP1 starts doing this, it seems to keep doing it after you unplug the
projector and press the buttons on the laptop that tell it not to output
video to the external video port.

Uninstalling and re-installing Project doesn’t help.

Re-booting doesn't always help. Eventually some magic keystroke, I can't
figure out what, will get project to load ok, but it dies again when you
connect back up to the projector with PowerPoint going.

I've let Project automatically report the error to MS several times. I
checked the knowledge base and came up empty.

Any ideas?

 

[Max]

Oh Yeah, the problem is experiened on Windows XP and Windows 2000
Professional. My XP system is fully patched via office and windows upgrades.
Laptop brands are recent Dell's and IBM Thinkpads.

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

I regularly do presentations with Project 2003 and PowerPoint 2003 via a
datashow. I've never experienced this. When you say connect back to
projector, do you just mean connect the cable to the svga output connector
or do you have a separate software product?

If you are just connecting to the svga then the only thing I can think of is
a hardware problem.

 

[Kevin]

I'm having the same problem with Project 2003 running on a Dell laptop. Must
be some sort of driver incompatibility problem but I can't seem to find a fix
for it anywhere (or even a reference other than this one that the problem
actually exists). Haven't been able to figure out a workaround either. Its
making me crazy because I really need to be able to project the workplan so
the team can collaborate on it in real-time.

 

[Rod Gill]

Any difference if you load Project first then PowerPoint or the other way
around? Does Project work without PowerPoint?

 

[Kevin]

I'm not running Powerpoint. The problem seems to be isolated to Project.
I've tried every sequence I can think of in terms of starting Project first,
starting the projector first, etc. but keep getting the same result. I just
read some other threads reporting the same issue going back into 2004. There
was also someone having this problem with a Gateway laptop so it must not be
unique to Dells after all. Looks like this problem falls squarely through
the cracks.

 

[Rod Gill]

Sounds like you need to call Microsoft support then. They should have a fix
if its happened before.

 

[Reid McTaggart]

I do these sorts of activities all the time on my ThinkPad T23 with no
problems. Just today, I ran a demo with PowerPoint and PPro, plus a Virtual
Machine with PPro and IE. And, I even changed my screen resolution
midstream. All with zero problems.

I know this is no comfort to the afflicted, just a data point, FWIW.

-Reid

 

[Kevin]

I'd like to escalate through technical support channels but I'm not sure how
to proceed. Microsoft is likely to tell me that it is a hardware problem and
Dell is likely to tell me it is a software problem. Any thoughts about
which direction is more likely to yield the better result?

 

[Max]

We're using Thinkpad T40's and Dell C600's mostly. I'm having trouble
figuring out how it could be a video driver problem on such different
machines. I would not think the electronics and drivers would be identical.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

All I can say is for years I've routinely used both Project and Powerpoint
together and Project all by itself on a variety of laptops and desktops from
various manufacturers and displaying though a projector without experiencing
the difficulties you and Max report. AFAIK Project is not sensitive to
screen resolution and doesn't have any issues displaying at any level - I've
used everything from 640x480 all the way up to 1600x1200.

As to how it could be a video driver issue on different brands you own,
remember there are just a few vendors supplying cards to the OEM's, ATI and
nVidia being two that comes quickly to mind. You might try a tool like
Belarc Advisor (free for the download) to scan the affected systems and see
what is really there. I'd suspect an issue with the video card drivers when
trying to simultaneously display on the laptop's LCD panel and an external
monitor at a different resolution or that the projector requires a
resolution that can't be displayed by the LCD panel and the fact you've run
into it when using Project is only concidental.

 

[Kevin]

My problem is somehow unique to Project. I've used every other Office app
with the same laptop and projector without a problem. As soon as I launch
Project I get into this crash loop. If I disconnect the projector, Project
loads just fine. For some reason, Project goes haywire when it detects the
projector.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

A thought occured to me - do you have a printer driver installed on the
laptop. The one time I got lockups on my laptop when using a projector I
traced it to having a printer installed as a locally connected printer,
having it set to be the default printer, but then having the printer
unplugged (since I was on the road). Adding a generic printer installed as
a network printer to the list and making it the default printer when
traveling cured the problem.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[Kevin]

Just got this response back from a Microsoft support engineer and, believe it
or not, it works!

Issue:

MS Project is crashing when the Laptop is connected to the Projector.

Resolution:

1. Projector must be attached
2. Right click on desk top, go to Properties, select the Settings tab
3. Click on the #2 monitor, and check the check box, click OK and close
all windows
4. Now Project should open.
5. Right click on desk top, go to Properties, select the Settings tab
6. Click on the #2 monitor, and Uncheck the check box, click Apply.
7. Click on the #1 Monitor, click on the Advance button, click on the
Display tab.
8. Click on monitor top left corner (it will be red) and it will turn
green.
9. Now Projector will display your desk top.

 

[Doug Davis]

Ok, I tried this. Now MS Project does not crash, but I cannot see MS Project