Question: I cannot play standard multimedia files (avi, mpg) in
PowerPoint2003. Can you solve the problem?

Here are the details of my system:
- Brand new IBM ThinkPad R51, 512MB RAM, Intel Pentium M 1500Mhz processor
- Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2, automatic
updates (with a manual update this afternoon to make sure)
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 SP1
- Windows Media Player 9.00, with "check for updates" run today
- DirectX installed from Microsoft website
- QuickTimePro 6.5.1
- This problem occurred with the system right out of the box, except
that I installed QuickTimePro, and my school's IT team added a bunch
of junk to make it work in the school (like wireless access and access
to the school's shared hard drives)

Detailed description of problem:
I have lots of multimedia files (mpg, avi) that I use in PowerPoint
lectures. I have used these files successfully in PPT presentations
for a few years on my Win98, Win2000, and Mac machines. I recently
received a new laptop from my school on which I must run my lectures.
If I double-click on one of these multimedia files (say sample.mpg) on
the desktop, MediaPlayer opens and plays it fine. If I start
PointPoint, create a new document, then Insert > Movies and Sounds >
Movie from File and then choose sample.mpg, it appears in the slide
window, correctly displaying the first frame of the movie. But then if
I try to run the movie (either by double clicking in the edit mode, or
by running a slide show), the area where the movie should be goes
white, and neither video nor audio is played. I know that the movie is
"there" because the cursor changes (from arrow to hand) when I pass
the cursor over the box where the movie should be. Furthermore, if I
turn the slide background black, then the movie appears as a white box
of the proper size. I have tried over a dozen movie files, both mpg
and avi, and this problem is repeated for all of them.

I suspect there is some video drive or codec problem or something, but
I am not smart enough to figure that out or fix it!

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Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 30 Aug 2004 20:07 PDT

Have you tried clicking on Help>Detect and Repair to restore the
shortcuts and restore the default settings? You will be prompted for
the installer so please make sure you have it with you. Please take
note that the changes may also affect other Office files so if you
have special settings or set options in other Office programs, all of
those may be changed back to the default settingsand you might need to
set your custom settings again. Please let me know if it solved the
problem.

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Clarification of Question by ejs-ga on 30 Aug 2004 21:37 PDT

I have not tried restoring the default settings. The machine came with
Office loaded onto it, and I did not receive a CD. However, I'm pretty
sure I can track one down from the IT folks and will give that a try.
I will do that tomorrow (Tuesday). I like your suggestion as it
provides a good baseline. Thank you!

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Request for Question Clarification by feilong-ga on 30 Aug 2004 21:44 PDT

Thanks for your immediate response. I have other possible solutions if
that one failed to solve the problem. I'll wait for your reply.

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Clarification of Question by ejs-ga on 31 Aug 2004 08:54 PDT

I have the Office2003 system disk. I chose Help > Detect and Repair. I
set it so that "Restore my shortcuts" was turned OFF and "Discard my
customized settings and restore default settings" was turned ON (I
have no customized settings as far as I know). Completed successfully.
Exit PowerPoint and relaunch. Try inserting movie. No change. Drat.
Perhaps the next thing I should try is to completely reinstall
Office2003?

is there a kind of error message where the video is supposed to be?

No error message at all. Just a white box in the size, shape, and
location that the movie is supposed to be. No overt indication from
PPoint that anything is wrong.

Perhaps this will help?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00099.htm

If nothing else, educational. :)