New recurring PowerPoint Freeze Ups

[Aster]

Over the last 4-6 weeks, all of our campus computers have been displaying identical problems with Microsoft PowerPoint.

When you enable presentation mode, the application will totally freeze up after a few minutes on whatever slide it was left on.

The freeze up is so bad, that you cannot even alt-tab out. The keyboard and mouse are also locked up. It locks up the entire computer.

The only way to get out (without a physical reboot) is to control-alt-delete (these are the only keyboard commands that seem to function). If you get into task manager from the control-alt-delete command, this somehow unlocks the PowerPoint lock-out and restores your computer. This will "fix" the problem for the duration of your log-in period.

Numerous people have reported this new PowerPoint problem to our IT department, and we have yet to even get a response. That's really weird, because IT usually fixes something immediately and send us lots of follow-up documentation. But with this PowerPoint glitch, complaints are going into a black hole.

I was mentioning this problem to a colleague at another university a few weeks ago. He said that the exact same thing was happening at his school, and nobody knew how to fix it.

WTF is going on?

[Caracal]

Over the last 4-6 weeks, all of our campus computers have been displaying identical problems with Microsoft PowerPoint.

When you enable presentation mode, the application will totally freeze up after a few minutes on whatever slide it was left on.

The freeze up is so bad, that you cannot even alt-tab out. The keyboard and mouse are also locked up. It locks up the entire computer.

The only way to get out (without a physical reboot) is to control-alt-delete (these are the only keyboard commands that seem to function). If you get into task manager from the control-alt-delete command, this somehow unlocks the PowerPoint lock-out and restores your computer. This will "fix" the problem for the duration of your log-in period.

Numerous people have reported this new PowerPoint problem to our IT department, and we have yet to even get a response. That's really weird, because IT usually fixes something immediately and send us lots of follow-up documentation. But with this PowerPoint glitch, complaints are going into a black hole.

I was mentioning this problem to a colleague at another university a few weeks ago. He said that the exact same thing was happening at his school, and nobody knew how to fix it.

WTF is going on?

Yes! I've had almost the same problem and it started about the same time. I've discovered that if I take the cursor and click rapidly on the power point that unfreezes it after a few seconds and then it doesn't recur for the rest of the lecture. Maybe give that a shot?

[Aster]

Yes! I've had almost the same problem and it started about the same time. I've discovered that if I take the cursor and click rapidly on the power point that unfreezes it after a few seconds and then it doesn't recur for the rest of the lecture. Maybe give that a shot?

I tried that today. The workaround worked great. Thanks for the tip!

[Parasaurolophus]

Weird. I'd have guessed it was a problem with an/the update, but none of that's happening here. Then again, the IT here isn't the world's greatest team, so maybe it's coming. Campus-wide virus? Does it happen even if you plug your own laptop in?

[Caracal]

Weird. I'd have guessed it was a problem with an/the update, but none of that's happening here. Then again, the IT here isn't the world's greatest team, so maybe it's coming. Campus-wide virus? Does it happen even if you plug your own laptop in?

I haven't tried with my own laptop, but I asked a colleague and she said it was happening to her too. I'm just happy because rapidly and angrily clicking the cursor is my go to solution for all technical problems and this is the first time it has actually worked...