Ah yes... nView Desktop Manager... i actually looked more into that,
and
it's
not really crashing anything itself, and has nothing to do with the
video
card, its just noticing when a program quits responding to the OS at
all,
including graphically. You might try Trillian out... the free version
lets
your do AIM, MSN, AOL, ICQ, and soon-to-come Myspace IMs, all in one.
I've
never had a problem with it.
Back to the PPT issue, and graphic-laden slides, it just seems like
there
should be a real fix to the issue, when two computers (laptops),
exactly
the
same (same agae, same processor/RAM and OS installation) sitting next
to
eachother, one will have the problem and the other one won't. and then
the
next day, the other laptop will have the problem, and the one that did
previously does not anymore!
REALLY REALLY ODD. I just wish i knew enough about programming to jump
in
and find the problem myself!
Dan
:
I see it fairly frequently on my monster Alienware machine with an
nVidia
GeForce Go 6800 video card. It's usually on slides with
semitransparent,
and/or gradient, and/or semitransparent-gradient fills. If I'm working
on
a
slide that's got an object that's been ungrouped into a hundred
bazillion
little pieces, it's likely to happen. Grouping the objects together
helps.
(Maybe it's because all those little bitty pieces inevitably have
weird
gradient fills!)
I will say that I've had some problems with this nVidia card and
various
apps on my system, and it's not all when interacting with Office apps.
Dang
thing would lock up at the most inopportune times, and then I'd get an
error
message about how the app is not responding to the nVidia desktop
manager
and do I want to exclude it from being managed (or something like
that).*
I
finally disabled the whole nView desktop manager thing, and it's been
much
better. Thank god, because it was making me really nuts. (worse than
usual,
lol)
I also do some video editing, and yes, the Adobe apps like Premiere
Pro
and
Encore DVD do take a hit with the hardware acceleration turned down.
I've
just had to make dinking with that hardware acceleration setting part
of
my
workflow.
* (MSN Instant Messenger was a HUGE frustration, lemme tell you! It'd
take
down my whole system for minutes at a time, and then I'd get the
"nVidia
managed app" error thing, even though I'd disabled its nView settings
in
the
App exclusions part of the nView Desktop Manager. Grrr. It's not
Office,
but
it *is* a Microsoft product, yeah.)
--
Echo S [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PowerPoint 2007?
http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/index.html
PPTLive! Oct 28-31, New Orleans
http://www.pptlive.com
While I haven't personally managed to toss PPT into Flash-o-Matic
mode,
plenty of other folks have reported
the problem here and some of the other regulars have seen it. I do
get
in
some fairly heavy-duty
graphic-laden PPT files from clients; odd that I've never triggered
this,
even though I'm as likely as not to
have several heavy apps running at once. That's why I was asking
about
the specific graphics that seem to
aggravate the situation.
Well i have two PPTs. One is just a tester i to see if the laptop
will
bug
out or not before i start using it as the main computer, but the
real
file
sizes vary from 7Mb to 80Mb. Its just so stinking frustrating if
you
have to
edit it (i hate PowerPoint personally, "but for some reason i can't
get
my
clients to use flash"... ha ha, in my wildest dreams!!! oh well. I
seem
to
find it to occur when there are multiple objects (10 or more) in a
slide,
and
will do the flashing thing particularly when anything new goes on,
such
as
switching to a firefox browser window, or opening a new document,
or
simply
advancing to the next slide to edit. Even backing out fo
presentation
mode
it'll go wacky, for usually 15 seconds!!! Unfortunately, it is
near
impossible to find anyone who even knows what i'm talking about,
cause
if
you
use the word 'flash" or "flashing" or anything with the word
'flash'
in
it,
all i seem to get is "how to import flash documents into
powerpoint"
as
apposed to the graphics flashing on the screen.
:
Dan
wrote:
My apologies, i'm just extremely frustrated with Microsoft
'fixes'
as
of
late, synonymous with "Oh, your computer runs slow? Buy RAM or
Reinstall
Windows. Don't fix whatever is slowing down the computer".
Sure,
that will
work most of the time, but... well, you know what i'm talking
about,
i'm
sure, sorry for the vent.
I hear ya. And no need for apologies. I wasn't annoyed or
anything,
just wanted to
make sure you understood that we're just the messengers. Don't
shoot.
<g>
Actually i do (see a difference in other programs once
acceleration
is
fiddled with) , and i've noticed if you do it too much in one
boot
session,
Windows (namely explorer.exe) begins to crash. I've tested on
fresh
starts
and everything. I have also noted this on multiple laptops,
namely
IBM
Thinkpads (3 to be specific). But that all to say that yes it
does
effect
Photoshop slightly, and reagflly hits Premiere Pro hard, and
thus
I
can't
tone it down.
Thanks for that; it's something I don't run into because I don't
use
any really
high-end video stuff. I'd definitely check the IBM/Lenovo site
to
see
if a video
driver update's available. As to the graphics, what's the file
format
and size that
causes PPT to go into whackawhacka mode?
nVidia GeForce 7900GTX 512MB PCI-E
Thanks!
Dan
:
Understand that none of us are MS support people or
programmers,
just users like
yourself. We can't fix anything that's wrong with PPT.
But also keep in mind that video boards and drivers are
complex
critters with
lots of features programs can call on. Usually the reason
for
this
kind of
problem is that the particular method one program uses
doesn't
actually work as
advertised.
By kicking back hardware accelleration, you're telling
Windows
to
handle some
features itself rather than letting the video driver handle
them.
If that
solves the problem, it's a pretty good bet that the video
driver
wasn't doing
the job right.
It's always worth reporting this to the video board maker and
checking for
updated drivers that might solve the problem and allow you to
crank
accel back
up to warp speed w/o having to worry about PPT flashing
madly.
[Aside: I wonder if the reference to the f-word above will
trigger
the usual
barrage of spam from the "you can convert ppt to f**** usin
our
software" crowd]
I'm curious about something, though. When you crank hardware
accel
back, do you
see a noticeable speed hit in Photoshop et al?
Dan wrote:
OK, that's all wonderful to go around the problem and find
a
way
to bypass
the problem, but what about fixing it so that PowerPoint
won't
flash when you
have complicated graphics? I use Adobe PhotoShop, Premiere
Pro,
and other
high-end programs that utilize my graphics cards (w/
512Mb/channel) without
causing problems or having to change my settings for
graphic
acceleration?!?!? And yet a simple document with a couple
graphics will sit
there and refresh over and over? Again, instead of
bypassing
the
problem, is
there a real solution or reason someone can give me for
this
problem? Thanks.
dan
:
Try setting back your hardware graphics acceleration and
see
if
this helps:
http://pptfaq.com/FAQ00129.htm
--
Shawn Toh (tohlz)
Microsoft MVP PowerPoint
:
Catherine,
What tohlz said but also.....
Try updating your 'graphics card driver' - an update
normally
found on the
website of the manufacturer of your graphics card.
cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp
-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ:
www.pptfaq.com
PPTools:
www.pptools.com
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