I have a problem with Office XP Professional SP3. This problem is happening more and more frequently. Here is the Lab environment:

Vista SP2 computer
Students logon to a domain environment
Students save/open there work on a Network drive
Computer has Office XP SP3 installed
Symantec Endpoint installed
Lab environment with about 30 Vista computers

The problem is this:

A student logs on with there name, they go to the Network drive on the File server to open there PPT document. Within minutes of opening the PPT document, Powerpoint will go white and say NOT RESPONDING. This problem happens on about 10-15 computers but not all 30 computers. This problem will happen repeatedly on the same computers.

What is causing this problem to occur? How do I fix this problem? On the worst computers, I have performed a Spyware scan but didn't reveal anything unusual. Could it be a Windows Update?

Hi pfisher,

Is it the same PowerPoint presentation on all of the affected PCs? What about other presentations? What about when they use different applications (eg Word, Excel)?

Have you tried repairing PowerPoint on the affected PCs (Help|Detect & Repair)?

Does it only affect particular students (eg what happens if students on an apparently unaffected PC logoff & swap places with students on the affected PCs)?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Macropod,

The PPT document is basically the same template across the board with all students. There documents have pictures, color background, sound, etc... all the wing dings you can imagine. So, all the students use basically the same procedure on there computers. Again, they (individually) open there own document on there assigned computer. The other catch is the teacher uses Thumb drives which the students take home and use there drives at home. So, the possibility of a virus like activity is high. I don't know that is what is causing the problem but it is likely.

Could there a macro virus or spyware affecting the Office XP? I have scanned a few computers but it didn't reveal anything.

Yes, I have done a Detect and Repair but I don't know that is was helpful. The other problem is this, on there files, the students have a color boxes on the slides. When this problem takes place, they lose the color of the box. For example, they have a box that is blue background, after PPT stops responding, the background turns white.

Any other suggestions?

Here is a quick update. If I open a corrupted PPT document in PPT, the boxes in each slide that are suppose to have a color background but are now white background it will stay white. However, if I open the same PPT document in PPT viewer, the document is correct and is NOT corrupt. Do you follow?

How do I open a PPT document in PPT viewer and resave the document?

Hi pfisher,

I doubt virus activity is behind this. More likely that the files have been at least partly corrupted - perhaps by unsafe USB stick removal. It might be best to delete the corrupted shapes & recreate them and, if that isn't sufficient, perhaps the affected slide will need to be deleted and recreated.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]