Powerpoint 2002 - crashes when opening certain presentations?

[Danger]

As soon as I scroll down through the pages in certain presentations,
Powerpoint says that it has caused an error, and then restarts with a blank
presentation.

This only happens with a handfull of presentations.

Is this a known bug?

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Echo S]

As soon as I scroll down through the pages in certain presentations,
Powerpoint says that it has caused an error, and then restarts with a
blank presentation.

This only happens with a handfull of presentations.

Please clarify -- is the crash happening when you open the file(s) (that is,
does ppt start to open and then hang or open the file and immediately
crash), or does it happen when you are scrolling through the presentation?

If it's when you're scrolling, are you scrolling with the mouse, or are you
using Page Up/Page Down on the keyboard?

What's the exact wording of the error message you receive?

Which version of PPT?

Do the affected presentations have anything in common?

 

[Echo S]

Which version of PPT?

oops. Missed the PPT 2002 you mentioned already in the subject line. You can
ignore this question!

 

[Danger]

Hi Echo S,

The crash happens a few seconds after the document has opened. At first I
thought it was happening one 1 corrupt file that was then being copied as a
template - hence all files created from it will crash. However, it now seems
to be happening with various presentations, but not all!

Usually scroll with mouse wheel, but I think the crash seems to happen
regardless of scrolling.

The error message is not really a normal error message, but you get that
annyoing screen that says, 'Powerpoint has caused an error and will be closed
- please send an error report to Microsoft etc. etc.'

Thanks

One of those random MS office problems I think.

Have you come across this before?

 

[Echo S]

Hi Echo S,

The crash happens a few seconds after the document has opened. At
first I thought it was happening one 1 corrupt file that was then
being copied as a template - hence all files created from it will
crash. However, it now seems to be happening with various
presentations, but not all!

Hm. This is a bit odd, to say the least. I'd expect that either all
presentations would crash PPT (in which case it's probably an application
problem) or just one or two would (in which case it's probably a corrupt PPT
file).

I think I would start with closing PPT and then searching for and deleting
your *.PCB file. That's your PPT toolbar. You'll lose any customizations
when you do this, and PPT will rebuild the default toolbar the next time you
start it.

The next thing I'd check is add-ins. Close PPT and search for *.PPA files
and rename them to *.OLD or something. Start PPT. Does it still crash? If
not, then you can close PPT and rename your *.OLD files one at a time until
you can isolate the problem add-in.

Oh yeah. You need to make sure your file extensions aren't hidden when you
go to do these things. http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00034.htm (Windows
setup at the bottom of the page. Also make sure you have a default printer
installed as described near the top of the page.)

Usually scroll with mouse wheel, but I think the crash seems to happen
regardless of scrolling.

Well, I suppose that could point to mouse drivers. You can try reinstalling
those.

The error message is not really a normal error message, but you get
that annyoing screen that says, 'Powerpoint has caused an error and
will be closed - please send an error report to Microsoft etc. etc.'

Sometimes when you hit the info button/link on those error messages you can
get more information. And sometimes you're even taken to a Microsoft page
that explains the fix. Are you sending the error report? Have you tried
hitting the Info button/link?

Thanks

One of those random MS office problems I think.

Have you come across this before?

Yeah, I've come across all kinds of weird crashes. But I doubt it's
random -- _something's_ causing it.