Movies freeze after upgrade to PowerPoint 2003

[David Cornick]

I have upgraded from PowerPoint 2000 to 2003. Now if I insert a movie (wmv
or mpg) it plays once but on the next click the program freezes and the
message: "MCI Error The specified device is now being closed. Wait a few
seconds, and the try again" appears. Needless to say it stays frozen. Movies
still play perfectly on PowerPoint 2000 which I kept on the computer.
I have been in touch with Microsoft but after trying various things they
advised "The only solution here is to Re-Format the system and load
everything once again."
Now I'm desperate, can you help?

 

[Austin Myers]

Couple of things. First, have you installed all the updates to Office 2003?
Next, how about DirectX? (You should be using version 9c.) And finally,
what other multimeida applications are installed on the machine?


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Solutions to Multimedia in PowerPoint www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Austin Myers]

Couple of more. What OS are you using and what version of Windows Media
Player?


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Solutions to Multimedia in PowerPoint www.pfcmedia.com

 

[David Cornick]

Yes I've installed all the updates including version 9c of DirectX, I've got
RealOne Player, Quicktime Player, Medion Home CinemaXL II, Nero Burning ROM
and Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus installed. I'm using XP Home and Windows Media
Player 10.

One post from Microsoft said: I worked with my Research team on your issue
and concluded that the MCI registry entries used for playing the '.wmv' files
have been changed. Now this mostly happens due to the 3rd party softwares
used to play the files; like Quicktime, real player etc

I've read your 11 page tutorial and discovered that the movie plays fine in
safe mode. I haven't tried playing with the Registry though.

Thanks for your patience.

 

[Austin Myers]

David,

I'd say the folks at MS are right and the best or at least easiest solution
is a reinstall, unless of course you have saved system restore points along
the way when you installed all of this software. In that case simply
rollback to an earlier point.

Truth is if I had your machine in front of me it would take a good deal of
time to try and manually sort through the registry to find all the problems.
Much longer than a simple reinstall would take.

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Solutions to Multimedia in PowerPoint www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Echo S]

You might check here:
http://www.echosvoice.com/tshoot_video2.htm

I'm wondering if Pinnacle Studio 9 is the issue.

Just a shot in the dark.