How to troubleshoot a damaged presentation in PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2010

You may experience unexpected behavior when you work with a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 or PowerPoint 2010 presentation. This behavior may occur because the presentation is damaged. This article contains step-by-step methods to try that may help you partially restore or fully restore your presentation. 

This article is intended for a beginning to intermediate computer user.

You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first.

Problem Description:

When you try to open or change a presentation that is damaged, you may experience the following symptoms:

• When you try to open a presentation, you receive one of the following error messages:

§  This is not a PowerPoint Presentation

§  PowerPoint cannot open the type of file represented by file_name .ppt

§  Part of the file is missing. 

• You receive the following types of error messages:

§  General Protection Fault

§  Illegal Instruction

§  Invalid Page Fault

§  Low system resources

§  Out of memory

Methods to determine whether you have a damaged presentation

There are several ways to help determine whether you have a damaged presentation. You can try to open the file on another computer that has PowerPoint 2007 installed to see whether the unexpected behavior occurs on the other computer. You can try to create a new file in PowerPoint and see whether the unexpected behavior occurs with the new file. This section describes how to use existing presentations and how to create a new file in PowerPoint to determine whether the presentations have the same behavior.

Method 1: Open an existing presentation

·         In PowerPoint 2007 click the Microsoft Office Button. In PowerPoint 2010 click the File menu and then click Open. 

·         Click a different presentation, and then click Open. 

Method 2: Create a new presentation

Step 1: Create the presentation

§  In PowerPoint 2007 click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click New. In PowerPoint 2010 click the File menu. 

§  In PowerPoint 2007, click Installed Templates, and then click Introducing PowerPoint 2007. In PowerPoint 2010 click the File menu, click New, click Sample templates, and click Introducing PowerPoint 2010. 

§  Click Create. This process creates a presentation based on the template. 

§  In PowerPoint 2007 click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Save. In PowerPoint 2010 click the File menu and then click Save. 

§  Type a name for the presentation, and then click Save. 

§  Exit PowerPoint. 

Step 2: Open the new presentation

§  In PowerPoint 2007 click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open. In PowerPoint 2010 click the File menu, and then click Open. 

§  Click the new presentation, and then click Open.

Methods to try if you cannot open a presentation

Method 1: Drag the presentation to the PowerPoint program file icon

Windows Vista

·         Click Start, and then click Documents . 

·         In the Start Search  box, type  %programfiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12 (PowerPoint 2007), and then press ENTER. If you have PowerPoint 2010 installed type  %programfiles%\microsoft office\office14 (PowerPoint 2010), and then press ENTER. 

·         Locate the Powerpnt.exe icon in Windows Explorer. 

·         Drag the damaged presentation icon from one window to the Powerpnt.exe icon in the other window.

Windows XP

§  Click Start, and then click Run.

§  In the Open box, type %userprofile%\My Documents.

§  Click OK

§  Click Start, and then click Run. 

§  In the Open box, type %programfiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12 (PowerPoint 2007). If you have PowerPoint 2010 installed type %programfiles%\Microsoft Office\Office14 . 

§  Click OK. 

§  Locate the Powerpnt.exe icon in Windows Explorer. 

§  Drag the damaged presentation icon from one window to the Powerpnt.exe icon in the other window.   

Method 3: Try to open the presentation in PowerPoint Viewer.

Windows Vista

Step 1: Visit the PowerPoint Viewer download Web page

1.   Click Start

2.   In the Start Search box type iexplore.exe, and then press ENTER.

3.   Visit the following Microsoft Web site for PowerPoint 2007 Viewer

4.   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=048dc840-14e1-467d-8dca-19d2a8fd7485 

5.   Visit the following Microsoft Web site for PowerPoint 2010 Viewer

6.   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=cb9bf144-1076-4615-9951-294eeb832823 

Step 2: Install PowerPoint Viewer

1.   Click Download

2.   Click Run

3.   Click to select the Click here to accept the Microsoft Software License Terms check box, and then click Continue

4.   Click OK

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue

Step 3: Open the damaged presentation in PowerPoint Viewer

1.   Click Start , and then click All Programs

2.   Click Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer [2007/2010]

3.   Click Accept

4.   Click the damaged presentation, and then click Open

If you can open the presentation in PowerPoint Viewer 2007, the copy of PowerPoint 2007 installed on the computer may be damaged.