I have a Powerpoint presentation that I update monthly automatically with charts from an Excel file. When I open the presentation, Powerpoint asks me if I want to update the charts. When I click OK, the warning below appears even though Excel is not open (I have confirmed this with the Task Manager).

And it gets worse, it asks me again for each chart link. I have dozens. Frustrating.

Anyone have any ideas? I read somewhere that disabling add-ins might help but that was a dead end.