Powerpoint Show Losing Focus...Can't advance Slide

[Mike]

I have a laptop hooked to a projector running a ppt show and also attached is
an InFocus remote clicker via USB . The problem is that in the middle of the
show...ppt loses it's focus and the mouse pointer appears, thus, the next
slide can't be advanced with the clicker.

To resume the show, the laptop's left mouse button needs to be pressed to
re-activate the ppt show. This happens roughly every 3-4 minutes.

I've closed any applications that might be stealing the focus and turned off
"QuickSave" in Powerpoint to no avail.

Running XP with SP2 along with Office 2003.

 

[Bill Dilworth]

Every 3-4 minutes sounds like it may be anti-virus program file scan. What
AV are you running? Are you hooked into a network? Is your computer trying
to connect to an Instant Messenger service?

Be very cautious doing this. Hit Ctl+Alt+Del and wait for the Task Manager
to start. What programs are running? What Processes are running?

You diagnosis that something external is grabbing the focus (even of just
for a moment) sounds like a good one, but tracking down which is going to
take a little time.


--
Bill Dilworth
A proud member of the Microsoft PPT MVP Team
Users helping fellow users.
http://billdilworth.mvps.org
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yahoo2@ Please read the PowerPoint FAQ pages.
yahoo. They answer most of our questions.
com www.pptfaq.com
..

 

[Mike]

We're running Symantec Antivirus and yes, I did try running task manager
(sorted cpu) during the show but it never occured during that test. This
build is no different than 100's of builds we have yet this laptop seems to
be having the problem so I ruled out SAV as the culprit. I'm also testing
wether or not the print service is doing this since we have several network
printers installed but the laptop isn't on the network when this occurs so
I'm guessing maybe some pooling is going on. I tried to stare at a process
that would jump to the top of the list to determine the offending app but to
no avail.

Is it possible for me to write a macro that will run during a show to grab
the process list using an event like "Lost Focus". I can write the macro but
didn't know if code can run "during" a show vs. design time.

Thanks Bill for the thoughts. I don't want to rebuild this laptop for fear
that this doesn't resolve the issue in the manner I prefer. I like to know
why things don't work vs. the quick fix.

Note: No IM service and why do you say, "be very cautious doing this..."?
Ctl+Shift+Esc is a better way of going straight to task manager imho.
Thanks again.

 

[Bill Dilworth]

Check that the Office option is turned off in the Antivirus program. And
you may want to exempt *.PPT *.POT and PPT*. With SlideShowWindows files
from scanning.

The Ctl+Alt+Del to the task manager can allow a novice user to crash a
system, and while you are not a novice, others that read the post may be.

You can write code that will keep PowerPoint from interfering with
PowerPoint. Something like
With SlideShowWindows
If .Count > 0 Then
.Item(.Count).Activate
End If
End With

.... but this will not keep other programs from getting the focus. You may
be better off writing an external app (VB6/C#/whatever) with a timer
function to look for a slideshow and give it the focus every 10 seconds or
so.


--
Bill Dilworth
A proud member of the Microsoft PPT MVP Team
Users helping fellow users.
http://billdilworth.mvps.org
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
yahoo2@ Please read the PowerPoint FAQ pages.
yahoo. They answer most of our questions.
com www.pptfaq.com
..

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

Mike,
I have heard anecdotal evidence of Norton System Works not always turning
off the Office add-in and therefore slowing things down. However, I have not
known it to cause the slow down during play - rather this one shows on
presentation open. (Thought: IF you are linking to other presentations, this
would trigger the Office Add-in also.)

Two other thoughts: Is this user running Outlook? Even if it is closed,
there is the possibility that it is trying to check fro email and grabbing
focus. It shouldn't be, but I have seen it happen. Same goes for machines
searching for wireless networks.

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com

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