WAV files do not appear in folder list

[d2aldridge]

I'm trying to insert a wav file into my PP presentation (attached to an
object)and when I browse for 'other sound' the wav file does not appear
in folder list. Other wavs are listed, but two or three others do not.
Have tried listing *.*, moving the files, folder view options, and
renaming the files - no luck. As far as I can tell, they are just
simple wav files, but PP does not recognize them for some reason.

 

[Sonia]

Well, that's strange. Are you sure that you are seeing the full file name and
extension? Do they all have .wav at the end of the file name? Even so, if you
open Windows Explorer and go to Tools > Folder Options > View, do you have a
check mark next to "Hide extensions for known file types"?

If you browse to the folder in Windows Explorer and click on one of the problem
files, does it play? If you go to Start > Run and type mplay32.exe to open the
MCI player and then open one of the WAVs and click the Play icon, does it play?
--

Sonia Coleman
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun Software, Templates and Tutorials
http://www.soniacoleman.com

 

[d2aldridge]

Sonia,
Nothing is out of the ordinary - I went through your suggestions and
everything looks good. It does play in media player.

The only thing that I can tell you is that these three wav files that
can't be found or inserted through PP were all obtained from the same
website.

Very strange, indeed.

 

[Sonia]

If you want to send one of the files to me I can test it here. My email is
sonia @ soniacoleman dot com.

 

[Sonia]

I received the file and there is nothing wrong with the WAV. It inserts and
plays just fine. It also shows up just fine in the browse folder when I do the
insert.

Are you sure that you are looking in the right folder? PowerPoint will
automatically open a window showing the folder that you last inserted from. But
if your file isn't in that folder, naturally it won't be listed. If PowerPoint
shows the wrong folder, you have to click the arrow next to the folder name and
locate the right hard drive and folder/sub-folder where you stored the WAV file.

 

[d2aldridge]

Ok, are you ready for this? Looks like I have some kind of a refresh
problem. This morning I deleted several folders that I no longer
needed. Although they don't appear in a typical XP folder view, they DO
appear when I'm trying to select files from within PP. But they no
longer exist! There is also one midi file that I moved to a different
folder (the one with the three wavs I'm having trouble with) that
suddenly appeared back in the old folder. I rebooted, but it's still
the same.

I wonder if I should reinstall PP? By the way, I'm very adept at
file/folder organization and I'm sure that's not the problem - unless
having too many subfolders is.

I've been working around computers for over 15 years and have never
seen anything like this - it's probably and XP SP2 issue!

 

[Sonia]

I wouldn't reinstall PowerPoint at this point and I wouldn't blame Windows yet.
If a file appears in a folder when your are doing an insert in PowerPoint, but
it doesn't appear in the folder when you look in Windows Explorer, it's hard to
guess what the issue is. What happens when you just do a simple Insert > Movies
and Sounds > Sound from File and browse to the folder with the WAVs? Does the
folder show the right contents?

 

[d2aldridge]

Still the same result. By the way, you've got that backwards - the
files do not appear in the folder when attempting a PP insert, but do
when viewing through Windows Explorer.

Strange............

 

[Sonia]

Beats me! Yes, I did type that backwards. My fingers don't always do what I
tell them to do. <G>

You could try doing a Detect and Repair for Office, but I wouldn't hold my
breath. By the way, what version of PowerPoint are we talking about?
PowerPoint uses Explorer, as far as I know, so it's really perplexing that what
you see in PowerPoint is not what you see in Explorer.

 

[d2aldridge]

PP 2002 is my version, and you're right - PP uses Explorer. I might try
uninstalling SP2 for XP, it has caused my friends some problems. I
research it a little. Is there an XP discussion group, I wonder?

Off topic: I used this group today via Google Groups and am wondering
why my name does not appear with my posts only my email address. I was
asked for an email address and asked to type in a nickname, but it
seems to ignore the nickname. Any ideas?

Thanks so much for all your help today - I don't know who pays your
salary, but you deserve a raise!

 

[Sonia]

We don't get paid, so 0 X 10% = 0. LOL!

You can access the NNTP server directly if you have a news reader like Outlook
Express. Just click on news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.powerpoint
and it'll be set up for you. From there you can see a list of the thousands of
newsgroups, including a large number of Win XP groups.

I don't use the web interface, but there's an icon for editing your profile. I
think that's where you could check to see what the Display Name is set to.

I can tell you that we have never, in my memory, had someone report the problem
you describe, with or without Win XP SP2. My guess is that it's something
local - - perhaps a Registry entry gone haywire. I think, since it's a fairly
common function, that we would have heard about it if it were a bug in the OS.
I'm not able to replicate it here, and I have been running Win XP SP2 for a long
time with no problems whatsoever. I would hate to see you forfeit the security
protection SP2 provides unless it's a known problem.

 

[Sonia]

'scuz me. I missed the Google Groups part. I definitely don't know anything
about that interface.

 

[d2aldridge]

Thanks for the suggestions - great thoughts that I hadn't considered. I
corrupt Registry entry makes sense. Can you recommend a Registry repair
program? Preferably something from the freeware genre........

 

[Sonia]

One thing I would try would be to locate C:\Documents and
Settings\Dianne\Application Data\Microsoft\PowerPoint\PPT10.pcb and rename it to
PPT10.old. Then try opening PowerPoint 2002 to see if that makes any
difference. Probably not, but I don't know the details of what PowerPoint keeps
in that file. PowerPoint will recreate the file using its defaults. If you
have a lot of toolbar customization you can just delete the new pcb file and
rename the old one back to PPT10.pcb.

Did you already try Detect and Repair?

 

[d2aldridge]

Nope, Detect and Repair did not work. I received this error message
when I ran it: "Error 1919. Error configuring ODBC data source: MS
Access Database, ODBC error 6: Component not found in the registry.
Verify that the file MS Access Database exists and that you can access
it." I don't have Access installed and so I'm thinking that this
message does not refer to my specific problem. But do you think that it
might show a problem in the registry? Can you recommend a repair
program?

I also tried renaming the .pcb file, but still a no go. I'm
stumped.........

 

[Sonia]

Well, that error (1919) does indicate a Registry problem, and it is related to
Office XP and even appears that it might effect Windows Explorer. See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324628
Did you remove any Corel product including WordPerfect?

As an alternative I guess you could uninstall and reinstall Office, but it would
be interesting to see whether the recommendation fixes the problem you've been
having.

 

[DIANNE ALDRIDGE]

Sonia,
I just wanted you to know that I'm still working on a solution. I went to
the link for the error I received and then forwarded to the Office XP
version, which is what I'm using. I did download MDAC 2.8 which is supposed
to insert some missing statements in the registry, but it didn't work - upon
running it I received a message that this program is incompatible with this
version of Windows (I'm using XP) and that all of the features contained in
this program are already a part of Windows.

Just for fun (ha!), I went and cleaned up my drive and defragged. I thought
that maybe those deleted folder that keep reappearing would finally go away.
Nope! I even uninstalled, reinstalled PowerPoint but it didn't work.

Now I'm thinking that I'll try to insert those missing registry statements
manually (wish me luck), then maybe try reinstalling all of Office XP, then
maybe try removing XP SP2.

It's like I'm on a mission now - I've got to find out what's up.

 

[DIANNE ALDRIDGE]

Sonia,
I purchased a registry repair program (Registry First Aid) and it sure did
remove a lot of obsolete entries, but it did not fix my problem.

Guess I'll try removing SP2. I'm brain dead on this one.

 

[Sonia]

Don't do it before you read through http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875350.

One thing you might try first would be to go to Start > Run and type sfc
/scannow (there's a space between c and /). It will repair any system files
that have been alterred or damaged. It's sure worth a try if it means that your
can keep service pack 2 installed. If you remove SP2 without running sfc and
suddenly PowerPoint works for you correctly, you'll never know that the problem
was unrelated to SP2.