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My powerpoint freezes and the remote won't forward

I have the new retina display. My old MacBook Pro (3 years old) used a Logitech remote presenter and moved through slides just fine. Now the remote freezes. Someone suggested Kensington. I got one, but when I plug in the USB it tells me it can't find the keyboard. Not sure what is going on. I am a professional presenter, so need answers to how I can use my powerpoint with an audience and a remote presenter and not have the program freeze. Thanks

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Mar 11, 2013 10:10 PM

23 replies

Apr 4, 2013 8:17 AM in response to christiefromthornton

Hallo

Test was successful! All presentations work without problems!

Workflow:

Complete deinstallation Office for Mac (instruction find with google…)
Reinstallation Office 2011 from CD
All updates up to and inclusive 14.1.0
NO MORE UPDATES!

Nothing special “energy settings” on my Mac…

Best regards.

gometra

Level 1

9 points

Apr 10, 2013 4:01 PM in response to MartinMacBookPro

I had just the same problem!

Scharkey

Level 1

0 points

Apr 16, 2013 3:47 PM in response to christiefromthornton

I've had the same problem and it drives me nuts! It all started in January of this year. I'm a professor so I give PPT presentations several times a week. I've talked with Apple and they have no idea how it happens, are sure it's not OSX and say convert to Keynote - which does work well except I have 20 years of presentation in PPT format. MSFT was totally unresponsive as they don't really care about Mac versions of any of their software. They suggested in Boot Camp to a Windows version and run it - seriously.

I'm afraid I only have bad news, but here is what I've found. It's not remote dependent, I've tried three kinds of remote and just using the keyboard, it still happens. It's not slide transistions (the MSFT solution) as I've tried removing all of the transitions and experiemented with various kinds and the problem still occurs. It's not version dependent (at least since January). I'm on 14.3.3 and it seems like it started after 14.2.0 It's not time dependent, as I set a timer and it happens as soon as 5:30 into a show and as late as 1:20:00 into a show. I can find no pattern that triggers it, which is why it's so maddening. It's not Energy Saver dependent as I've turn all that off as well as disk sleep/start-up and it still happens.

My only work around is to drop out of presenter mode (clicking the little X in the title bar) then reengaging presenter mode. It's unprofessional and disruptive and it drives me crazy. I'm using a late-2011 MBA, and on Friday we'll use my teaching partners old MB and see if it happens - he reports no problems to date.

This seems like such a small thing, but it makes PPT almost useless as a presenting tool and the jump to Keynote has it's own set of problems. Apple says it's not their machine and MSFT says boot to Windows. Neither is a particualrly good solution. Let's hope someone finds something.

Apr 16, 2013 4:05 PM in response to Scharkey

My last trip to the Genius Bar I took the council of MartinMacBookPro in a previous message and de-installed Office for MAC 2011, then reinstalled it with NO UPDATES! So running version 14.1.0. Disable the update reminders.

I had the MAC store help me as microsoft is insideous about many little files all over your computer that all have to be removed. I am going to run a test on it this week to see if it works. After buying a new projector (new Epson works great with retina display by the way) and remote, I am hoping this does the trick. It was not the hardware that was the problem! Will keep you all posted.

Apr 16, 2013 11:38 PM in response to christiefromthornton

Hallo

Last week i had a job: full-day day presentation.

No problen! No stop! All works like it must!

But: Office version 14.1.0 ...

Martin

May 9, 2013 11:45 AM in response to christiefromthornton

Hallo again

Microsoft has released the 14.3.4 update for Office.

Update description by Microsoft:

Remote devices lose control while in Presentation Mode in Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac

Fixes an issue in which keyboards and remotes may lose control in a PowerPoint for Mac slide show.

I have installed and tested the update. It seems to work all right.

Best regards...

gometra

Level 1

9 points

May 10, 2013 4:09 AM in response to MartinMacBookPro

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the info. Have installed the update and will see what happens!

Best wishes,

May 25, 2013 1:34 AM in response to gometra

I've carried out tests and had success with 2 different Macs as follows:

1) iMac (late 2009, i7, 16GB RAM) running OS X 10.8.3

- Office 2011 14.1.0 installed initially

- every MS update has been installed automatically from 14.1.0 to new 14.3.4

- updates 14.3.0 to 14.3.3 all had PowerPoint problem, 14.3.4 fixes it

- checked a 32 min and a 42 min presentation in Presenter View mode, both worked OK

- fixed PowerPoint, OK for general use

2) MacBook (late 2008, Aluminium, Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM) running OS X 10.8.3:

- Office 2011 14.1.0 installed initially

- every MS update has been installed automatically from 14.1.0 to 14.3.2

- discovered PowerPoint problem

- deleted Microsoft Office 2011 folder from Applications folder

- fresh install of Office 2011 14.1.0

- manual update to 14.2.3 using single updater

- PowerPoint problem fixed

- manual update to 14.3.4 using new single updater

- checked a 32 min presentation in Presenter View mode, worked OK

- fixed PowerPoint, OK for general use

So as far as I can tell, updating from a currently non-working 14.3.x and updating a rolled-back 14.2.3 both seem to produce a fixed PowerPoint. On this basis I'm recommending the latest update to friends and customers!

My powerpoint freezes and the remote won't forward