Powerpoint is updating laptop

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chuck Arney
  • Start date Start date
C

Chuck Arney

I have a large graphics and animation intensive
presentation. I am using Powerpoint 2002. Sometimes when
I show the presentation the slides on my laptop do not
update and the show runs smoothly. Other times the slide
updates on the laptop and makes the presentation jerk
when it does. I want the laptop to remain on the first
slide and not update. I am not using the presenter mode,
I usually hit F5 in normal mode. This problem happens
randomly. I do not have to close and then re-open
poerpoint to cause the problem I can run it one time and
it is OK, then stop it and run it again, and it updates
the laptop. How can I make it consistant?
Chuck Arney
 
What do you mean by "update"? What else is running on the laptop when this
happens? Do you have anti-virus software running?
 
Anti-Virus is not running that I am aware of. When you
open a presentation in normal mode on the laptop you have
a large slide in the center of the screen and the slide
thumbnails running down the left side of the screen.
Sometimes when I run the presentation (hit F5) the large
slide on the laptop stays on the first slide and does not
advance. Only the projector advances and it runs
smoothly. Sometimes everytime a slide advances on the
projector, the large slide in the center of the laptop
will also advance, and a gray square will advance to the
next slide in the thumbnails. When this happens it pauses
the projector for an instant and it jerks the
presentation. I do not have to close and open the
program. I can stop the presentation, work on a slide,
and then show it again and sometimes the problem is
there. Other times it works great.
 
Now I understand. It sounds like PowerPoint is demanding all of the
resources on your system just to project the image and refresh the
projector. By resources I mean processor speed, memory, the capabilities of
the video card, available disk space, and whether your hard disk is
fragmented. If your presentation has animation and transitions or music and
video, there will be heavy demand on resources. What transition effects are
you using?

Try cleaning out your Temp folder, defragging your hard drive, and updating
your video driver. Also try running the presentation without Presenter View
set to ON. That means that you should always keep the focus on the
projected image and not click on the laptop screen.
 
The answer is Yes, yes and yes. It is highly animated,
and graphics intensive. It is using all the resources on
my video card. I am running audio. This is indeed a
very complex presentation. I am NOT running presenter
mode for that very reason. I have updated my video
driver, and defraged my hard drive recently. I am using
an NVidia graphics card suite which allows me to place
the whole application on the projector and run it from
there. That way I can use a left mouse click to advance
the presentation, which I am doing wireless. When I do
that, Powerpoint is not visible at all on the notebook,
the presentation is running full screen on the
projector. I can tell if the program is updating the
laptop picture because sometimes it runs smoothly, and
sometimes each slide will jerk once as it updates the
slide in the program running under the presentation.
Which temp file am I to empty? I have several folders
and stuff in the temp file under Windows. I deleted all
the files, but left all the folders such as cookies etc.
Can I safely remove all these folders too, because I
would like to. I would like to set the program so that
it does NOT advance the slide on the laptop i.e. remains
on the first slide. IS THIS POSSIBLE? I am running XP
pro, NVidia GeForce2Go video card on a Dell Inspiron 8100
laptop. This is a presentation that is for a celtic
concert that I will be presenting in many churches over
the next few years. It is over an hour long, and
includes much animation to hold attention. I am
struggling with audio-slide timing, (see previous post)
and am attempting to address that with Producer which I
just downloaded. This has got to look slick as there
will be (hopefully) thousands of people who will be
viewing it live over the next years. Anything you can do
to help is GREATLY appreciated. I have invested months
of time in it's preparation.
Chuck
 
Then you should have the nVidia GeForce2 GO, v.44.82, A18 driver installed,
right? If not, you can find it on the Dell website. It's always good to
ensure that you have the latest available driver installed especially when
experiencing problems like those you described.

Are you using random transitions on your slides, or are you using the Fade
thru Black transition? It's a real resource hog.
 
No I do not have the latest, latest drivers for my card,
I am downloading them now. I am not sure I can use them
because I believe I am using the driver that NVidia
included in it's graphics suite program. As I recall,
when I change to another driver, it disables my video
suite software which I need for my application. I am
using a few fade-thru-black transitions, but not many.
The real issue is can I disable the slide update on the
notebook? When the presentation runs without updating the
notebook slide, it runs flawlessly through the whole
presentation. If I start it and it begins updating the
slide on the notebook, it will not stop updating it. I
never know how it is going to run the presentation. I
guess my question is: Is Powerpoint supposed to update
the slide on the notebook each time the slide changes on
the screen, and my program is just doing something screwy
when it does not update the slide on the laptop? What I
am saying is that if I start the presentation and it does
not update the slide each time the slide changes, it runs
the whole presentation with the first slide showing on
the laptop. It never tries to change that slide. If it
begins changing the slide on the laptop as the
presentation runs, it will continue to do so throughout
the presentation. Can I turn that feature on and off?
Do I have control over that feature?
 
I'm not sure about the driver. Usually, on laptops, if the card came with
it you need the driver that the manufacturer provides.

I can't think of a way to disable the PowerPoint Normal View, but thatt's
probably just my memory problem. Maybe someone will pop in with the answer
and I'll be hitting the side of my head.

I would definitely get rid of the Fade thru Black transitions.
 
I did some checking, and there is definitely a problem
with my video driver version. For some reason, I get an
error message when I try to update my driver. I am
running the original (2001) version driver. I have an e-
mail into Dell support which will hopefully fix my
problem.

I do not want to disable the normal view of Powerpoint, I
just want to disable the slide update feature while the
presentation is running. Any ideas how to do that? Also
I will drop by with a message if I have not found a
solution after I get the video driver version issue
resolved. Thanks so much for all your time and help!!!!
Chuck
 
If you get a current driver, I'm pretty confident that your problems will be
resolved or lessened, because the symptoms you describe sound very much like
display problems, especially because they are pretty random and different
each time. Let us know how it goes.
 
Back
Top