Powerpoint Crashing When Adding Audio

[clhouser]

Hi,

I downloaded a trial version of Adobe Presenter 2007. I have Windows Vista Home Premiuim and Office 2007. I have several presentations that I woudl like to add audio to and then post them for an online course. Each time I try to add audio to a Powerpoint presentation, it allows me to do a few slides, then crashes Powerpoint. Powerpoint then wants to disable the add-in. I've read several threads in which people had similar problems. I've not yet seen satsifactory answers. A recent post suggests that all will be well if I upgrade to Windows 7. However, Presenter is supposed to be compatible with Vista 32 bit. Any suggestions as to how to correct this problem?

CH

[Guest]

Hi CH,

Can you confirm if you are using Adobe Presenter 7.0.7? Are you importing an mp3 or wav to the presentations or recording audio through a mic?

thanks

<NIRUPAM TEWARY

[clhouser]

Hi again,

Yes, I am using 7.07. I am trying to record audio through a mic.

CH

[cballiso]

I feel your pain. We actually purchased a copy of Presenter, and I'm running Windows 7. I've experienced adding audio to several slides, only to have PowerPoint crash as well - but the last time it crashed, I've not been able to recover the Presenter add-in (see my as yet unanswered thread, below).

[clhouser]

Perhaps it is not directly related to the version of Windows. Certainly , upgrading to Windows 7 will not ensure success for me.

[cballiso]

I should mention that I've been using a Logitech headset for audio input.

[VideoPep]

Hi,

Please let me know at what point you are seeing crash; is it:-

1) At time of calibrating, or

2) At time of new recroding or

3) editing or

4) Insering new recording in edit audio window or

5) Import Audio

Secondly, is it with one specific  presentation or you are able to see crash in every presentation.

If you have any reproducible steps then it will be great!!. Since I am not able to reproduce the crash. So, reproducible steps will good way to find out more about it.

Regards,

Shubhi

[clhouser]

Hello,

It is at the time of new recording, usually just after I hit the stop or

pause button. It is with all of my presentations. I do have all saved in a

2003 format.

Thanks,

CH

[VideoPep]

Hi,

Thanks for reply. But sorry to say, I am still not able to repro the issue. I did following step:-

1) In Vista, Offic 2007. Created Presentation for 2003(.ppt)

2) Add few Slides

3) Go to Adobe Presenter>Record. Satrt recording, pause and stop will recording

4) Record to another slide

I did above steps but was not able to see crash, have I missed any step? Another ways is screen Record your actions from any free tool and share with us video.

Regards,

Shubhi

[clhouser]

Mine were preexisting presentations. In other words, created in Powerpoint

without Presenter. Does that make a difference? I do recall seeing a

suggestion that this might matter.

[Ashish-Adobe]

Hi CH,

Is it possible to share the presentation with us? May be it will give us some clue. You can sent it to me at asgarg@adobe.com. If it is large, please use acrobat.com and share the file with me,

Ashish

[atrav]

I have a similar problem that I can get to reproduce all the time on any machine.

I'm using Windows XP, Office 2003 and presenter version 7.0.7 build 7746.  New or pre-existing presentation.

1. Adobe Presenter, Record Audio
2. Start talking to calibrate your microphone until the box goes green
3. Click the record audio button and start recording.
4. Now say something really loud and you get a message saying "You need to lower your microphone recording level etc."
5. I'm now given three options, "Yes, No or Cancel"
6. If I choose "Yes" then I'm prompted to recalibrate.  If I do this and then press the OK button once I have the green box I get "Microsoft Powerpoint has encountered a problem and needs to close."  It doesn't matter which option I choose in step 5 above, each gives me the same error.

Regards,

Alan Travers.

[Ashish-Adobe]

Hi Alan,

We are able to repro this problem. However, at this point it looks like it is not related with CH's problem.

Ashish

[atrav]

Ashish,

I'm glad that you are able to reproduce the problem. What do you mean by CH? Where does this leave us with this issue? What happens next?

Thanks,

Alan Travers.

[Ashish-Adobe]

Hi Alan,

‘CH’ is the person who started this thread ☺ I did not get his name, so I used his signature. Sorry about the confusion.

For the issue that you reported, we are working on a fix. Overall, it is a change in behaviour of platform API. We should provide you an update soon. If you would like to try out an early patch, let me know. For the original issue, you might have seen that I have asked for the presentation. We will try to repro it with that.

HTH,

Ashish

[carriejill]

For me, the crash happens when I am done recording audio and click OK to go back to the Powerpoint slide.

This has happened on 3 different files this week.

[VideoPep]

Hi,

In the above discussion we talked about Crash while recording audio; when we overdrive the mic. Issue which you are reporting seems different. Is it reproducible everytime? please provide us reproducible steps. Also please answer following questions:-

1) What is the version of Adobe Presenter?

2) What is version of PowerPoint.

3) Which OS?

4) Are you seeing crash in PPT or PPTX

~Shubhi

[HachSvc]

In my case it is both. When I get the overdrive message = 100% crash rate and when I don’t get the message = ~30%

OS = Windows 7 SP1, 64 bit

PPT = 2007

File type = pptx

Presenter = V7.0.7 build 7746

Thanks

[Guest]

Hi all--same issue here, when adding audio to a previously designed Powerpoint.  We use LMX usb microphone.  How do I know if I am "overdriving" the microphone?

We are using Windows XP, PPT 2003, Presenter 7.07

Does not seem related to length of presentation, has occured on slide 2 of 30 as well as slide 28 of 30.  Very frustrating.  I thought upgrading to Windows 7 would fix the issue but from everyone's above comments it does not seem that way.  I've also considered upgrading Powerpoint.

Rebecca

[HachSvc]

Hi Rebecca,

I have the same problem and have given up using the record function.  I now only use the "Edit" function to record audio.  This will show the audio waveforms for all slides so you have to be careful.  You can click to the right of your slide marker and record audio from that point.  Your animation clicks can also be set and moved in this view.  Be aware that the cursor (starting point) for recording and animation markers is inaccurate unless you zoom in using the magnifying glass.  You can accidentally record over existing audio unless you're careful.  Once you have the audio for one slide, you have to hit the save button on the waveform (edit) window and close it to move to the next slide.  A pain but better than trying to restart Power Point.

Note:  You may on occasion see an unkown codec error when playing back some of the audio recorded in this fashion.  It usually happens between individually recorded sections (like adjacent slides)  If you see this, simply zoom in and insert a length of silence to bridge the gap.   

One other important thing to do.  Always develop your content on a local drive.  Presenter does not play well on network drives.  If you experience longer and longer save times, this is likely the reason (thank you to a previous contributor for this tip).  

I still have occassional lock ups but not related to audio.  If you leave your work for awhile be sure to save and shut down as Presenter still tends to lock up Power Point even when idling. 

I hope this is helpful..

Tim

[carriejill]

I am also having this problem, or a variation on the theme.

I have previously recorded audio, and want to update a few slides but use the original audio for most.  When I say OK after recording the new slides, PPT crashes.  All of the new recordings are gone, and the old ones are still there.

I have had the crash problem  before, but usually I just restart, publish the slide show, and all is well.

I suspect it is a problem with older and newer versions of the plugin.

My audio files are not being named the same way that recent presenter audios are named.

I saved a copy of the audio recording folder before restarting, because I noticed that restarting deletes all of the newly recorded files. Indeed, it did.

But I can't import the folder with all of the audio files, because there is no indication of which audio corresponds to which slide.

Have now lost a total of 5 hours of work. 

Is there a way to completely unlink my (58 slide) powerpoint from the already recorded audio, so that I can start fresh and not have this fatal problem?

[carriejill]

Is there any way to completely unlink a presentation from presenter, so that I can start fresh with recording audio and be sure it won't all be deleted because of the bug? Although I can delete inidividual audio files, I would like to be able to make a completely clean start of it.

By the way, I suspect the problem relates to having audio files recorded in previous versions of presenter.  The files I have been having problems with were originally recorded in 2008 or 2009.

Is there a way to update a file (including audio links etc) to the current version format, AND THEN record new audio?

Thanks

Carrie

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

The easiest method I can think of is to move the PPT(X) file to a differnet location from the Presenter folder containing all the audio. Then when you open the PPT file and try to do something in Presenter (import/record audio, modify the Presnetation Settings, etc.), it will throw a dialog box saying it cant find the PPCX file and gives you the option to drop the audio for the presentation and you can start over.

[carriejill]

Thanks, Jorma.

I'll do that to record the currently overdue lectures, while waiting for an Adobe cure that let's me salvage years of prior work.

[HachSvc]

I have the exact same problem with Windows 7.  Overdrive the mic and it will crash 100% of the time.  Old audio (previously saved) will remain.  New audio is gone.  In some cases when I complete the recording and save, it will crash.  In some cases it works well.  Every project I have has at least one "recovered" in the file name.  A badge of frustration.