Powerpoint 2016 - Crashing and altering screen settings.

[TheRobins]

I am finally throwing out the begging hat after weeks of issues that I just cannot get to the bottom of.

 

All of my desktops are current HP 280 G2's running Win 7 x64, using built in core i3 intel displays. My configuration is a VGA Monitor and then HDMI to the 65" Touch Screen Display. I am getting near daily calls to the room where the computer has lost the "duplicate display" setting and switched to display on this screen only.

 

I had hear of this issue before with PowerPoint, however at the time of questioning the users they didn't know when it happened it just did. After weeks of watching the device and questioning staff more it always seems to be happening just after closing PowerPoint presentation or during the middle of one, when PowerPoint will crash and return to single display mode.

 

With this in mind group policy has always been set so that PowerPoint does not use presenter mode, just the good old fashioned dual display. I have worked closely with the screen manufacturer and they suggested another little registry tweak as listed below,

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_powerpoint-mso_winother-mso_2013_release/powerpoint-2013-changes-display-setup/3ca470a0-d896-4577-b724-a360b6bf1c4e?auth=1

 

Even after this has been applied it is still occurring. I have replaced the machine with any identical 280G2 unit, re-imaged numerous times, Tried updated Intel and also the default Microsoft Intel display drivers, all to no avail. The screen has been swapped out due to an unrelated dead pixel issue and I have replaced the whole cable run to the screen, including the AV break out box.

 

I now also have a Level 2 call with HP but that was over a week a go so now one seems in any hurry to help fix the issue.

 

Just to see has anyone else experience similar or have any tips/tricks to get rid of this annoying nightmare of an issue.

[Garacesh]

We had the same issue. It's to do with what PowerPoint calls 'Presenter View'.

 

User Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Microsoft PowerPoint 2016/PowerPoint Options/Advanced

Do not allow PowerPoint to automatically extend display when presenting on a laptop or tablet : Enabled

Edited February 9, 2018 by Garacesh

[TheRobins]

It was my bad all along, I had it enabled in 2013 but forgot when we upgraded to 2016. Sadly it still has the odd hissy fit and just yesterday I witnessed someone come out of a Powerpoint in presentation mode and it threw the screens out of sync, but no where near as bad as before.

 

I am going to wait until I fully deploy Windows 10 before investigating further.

 

Thanks for the reminder,

[Ernie]

Any more thoughts or solutions on this post.

Moved to Office 2016 from 2010 over the holiday ever since experiencing the same problem. On both Win7 and Win10 pcs.

 

So far

Disabled hardware graphics acceleration

Disabled Slide Show hardware graphics acceleration

Unticked Use Presenter View

 

Tried the topology reg fix

Set other printers a default

 

Problem now very inconsistent, but still causing issues in the classroom. When it occurs having to use the windows key + P as a workaround. Even that sometimes does not work resulting in a turn off/on of the Tv

 

Any help or thoughts to this issue would be appreciated.

 

Maybe it’s a return to Office 2010 for these classrooms

 

Ern

[TheRobins]

Out of interest what is the spec / model of machine in use. Ours are HP desktops and issue still exists, even with the latest firmware and drivers.

 

It only seems to be happening on our CTouch 65inch panel, and not our other mix of hardware. Both HP and CTouch are adament it isnt their issue. I have even replaced the cable kit to rule out cabling issues. Our CTouch has also been swapped out due to another issue.

 

My next fix is going to be a HDMI splitter, However it needs to have audio passthrough for PC's (cheap amazon ones do not get seen by the PC, so cannot pass audio as driver cannot be set)

 

Staff at the moment are just using the Intel control panel when the screen goes, which is randomly when they exit a powerpoint. I have even seen it happen on a certain powerpoint presentation. Fix the issue and run it again and it wont happen. Since issue started there has been plenty of Office 2016 updates and Windows 10 1709 Education monthly patches but nothing seems to fix it.

[Ernie]

After a week’s holiday of course no chance of the problem going away! The Teachers who have bothered to keep a record show that it is inconsistent, could the version of PPT it had been created in be the answer?

 

We are using HP 400G4 and HP 8200 pcs and Prowise Tv’s

The connections are VGA to the PC Monitor and Display port to HDMI on tv. This worked fine before upgrading to Office 2016.

The workaround is still the windows key + P, of course this is not ideal.

 

I like the idea of the HDMI splitter so will try pc Display port to the splitter and then to the Monitor & Tv

 

Ern

[Garacesh]

User Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Microsoft PowerPoint 2016/PowerPoint Options/Advanced

Do not allow PowerPoint to automatically extend display when presenting on a laptop or tablet : Enabled

 

This appears to have recently stopped working for us. The policy is still set, but the Presenter View tickbox is no longer greyed out, it's automatically ticked, and it's buggering up Duplicate/Clone again (albeit with considerably less frequency than it used to, but still doing it)

 

Anybody else?

[TheRobins]

Nope, I have given up to be fair.

 

I am now waiting to see what Office 2019 does in this regard, they may have re-written it. I have started installing Clevertouch boards now and they come with HDMI Return which I am testing and is working well, for those users without these boards I am leaving very basic crib sheets on the desks advising staff how to reset the screen modes, they seem content with this so far.

 

As you say its not every time, just randomly which is really annoying and difficult to fault find.

 

I will also keep an eye out on the forums to see if anything comes about this issue.

[friendlytechnician]

We had he same issue, but I found a work around (in our case at least) by making sure the tv/monitor/projector/smartboard is powered on BEFORE the device plugged into it.

If the Laptop or PC is powered on, then connected to the AV device, then the AV device is powered on, we get the same as you. In our case it can sometimes be solved by removing HDMI / VGA lead and plugging back in then re-selecting source at AV.

 

We also had a related issue that when Powerpoint was in presentation mode and the teacher froze the screen (via freeze button on remote for projector or smart board) the screen went black. The above solution of screen power on first, then connect AV cable fixed this issue also.

[Jobos]

We had 5 screens fitted over the summer and are having the same problem and the PCs are HP 8200 so maybe the same thing. Anyway has anyone tried setting Powerpoint to restore the display when closing?

 

This caught my eye https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-powerpoint/powerpoint-2013-changes-display-setup/3ca470a0-d896-4577-b724-a360b6bf1c4e which is about Powerpoint 2013 be may be applicable to 2016 too.

 

Edit: Here's another link https://thomasvochten.com/archive/2016/01/ppt-topology

Edited November 12, 2018 by Jobos

[bknaggs]

We also found it’s putting PowerPoint into slideshow mode before switching on any screen connected with DisplayPort or HDMI that causes the connection to the screen to be lost when the slide show is closed.

Duplicate display brings the picture back but if sound is sent over the same DisplayPort or HDMI cable it’s either unplug/replug or restart the PC to get sound back.

[Ernie]

This is our current situation

Disabled hardware graphics acceleration

Disabled Slide Show hardware graphics acceleration

Disabled Use Presenter View

 

The below gives Mixed thoughts on this problem-

Our HP 400 G5 pcs, these have the intel UHD Graphics 630 and Office 2016 and a

HP 400 G4 (intel HD Graphics 630) pc with a powered HDMI splitter. Display port to HDMI Tv and monitor

Both these setups have no problem

 

So is it possible it’s a combination of graphics and PP settings?

 

As the problem has caused lots of support issues and teacher annoyance all of the classrooms with Tvs these would have either a HP 400 G4 or HP 8200 have been returned to Office 2010 SP2

 

The only thing not tried is a graphics card. The next round of pc purchases will no doubt be HP 400 G5 so this may confirm the graphics and PP settings theory.

 

Let’s hope Office 2019 may offer a solution.

 

Ern

[Jaan]

This is our current situation

Disabled hardware graphics acceleration

Disabled Slide Show hardware graphics acceleration

Disabled Use Presenter View

 

The below gives Mixed thoughts on this problem-

Our HP 400 G5 pcs, these have the intel UHD Graphics 630 and Office 2016 and a

HP 400 G4 (intel HD Graphics 630) pc with a powered HDMI splitter. Display port to HDMI Tv and monitor

Both these setups have no problem

 

So is it possible it’s a combination of graphics and PP settings?

 

As the problem has caused lots of support issues and teacher annoyance all of the classrooms with Tvs these would have either a HP 400 G4 or HP 8200 have been returned to Office 2010 SP2

 

The only thing not tried is a graphics card. The next round of pc purchases will no doubt be HP 400 G5 so this may confirm the graphics and PP settings theory.

 

Let’s hope Office 2019 may offer a solution.

 

Ern

 

I know this is an old thread, but did you resolve this?

 

We have a batch of machines with the Intel UHD 630 chipset and we are now having these issues.

 

We've tried official drivers intel drivers and forcing older intel drivers, as well as making changes to Powerpoint via GPO.

 

We are running windows 10 and office 2016 for reference.

 

cheers

[Ernie]

The problem certainly lies with PowerPoint 2016

We did the drivers & gpo settings bit with no result

 

On half of the deployed tvs we now use mains powered HDMI splitters these have no problem (CPC do these for £15ish).

Pc Display port to hdmi >splitter > tv > hdmi monitor.

Though with these we did found a sound problem with the windows not finding the sound output, one brand of splitters required the tv hdmi to be in port1. On the other brand the pc preferred the monitor to have built-in speakers.

 

 

For the rest of the tvs the teachers are slowly learning the Windows + P key to select the duplicate screen option

 

Ern

[Roachy]

Bumping this one in the hope someone found an answer! We have been trying to find a solution for this exact problem for months now with no luck. If anyone has any new ideas we would be eternally grateful!

[2097]

Bumping this one in the hope someone found an answer! We have been trying to find a solution for this exact problem for months now with no luck. If anyone has any new ideas we would be eternally grateful!

 

We were running Office 2021 , same problem still exists.

 

Only way round it for us was to use a HDMI splitter.

 

Does anyone still have this issue with 365 ?

[bknaggs]

One of our team found something worth trying with this and we're now a week since the last call regarding a classroom screen "randomly" losing signal so it might be worth a try if you're seeing the same problem before you start looking too much at updates or drivers or cable lengths.

 

It's a user registry setting

 

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\powerpoint\opt ions

RestoreTopology REG_Dword 0

 

This is alongside GPO settings that we already had in place

 

Microsoft PowerPoint 2016/PowerPoint Options/Advanced

 

Allow PowerPoint to also automatically extend the display when presenting on a desktop - Disabled Do not allow PowerPoint to automatically extend the display when presenting on a laptop or tablet - Enabled

 

I'm clearly tempting fate posting this but we'll see.

[2097]

One of our team found something worth trying with this and we're now a week since the last call regarding a classroom screen "randomly" losing signal so it might be worth a try if you're seeing the same problem before you start looking too much at updates or drivers or cable lengths.

 

It's a user registry setting

 

HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\powerpoint\opt ions

RestoreTopology REG_Dword 0

 

This is alongside GPO settings that we already had in place

 

Microsoft PowerPoint 2016/PowerPoint Options/Advanced

 

Allow PowerPoint to also automatically extend the display when presenting on a desktop - Disabled Do not allow PowerPoint to automatically extend the display when presenting on a laptop or tablet - Enabled

 

I'm clearly tempting fate posting this but we'll see.

 

Thanks but already have that enabled and that registry set

 

Problem seems to be when they load a presentation and hit play before turning on the display connected to a "Digital" port such as HDMI or DP.

 

So a lot of teachers will turn on the computer, open powerpoint and play their slides ready for lesson . Once the kids enter the room they turn on their digital display, they then play the powerpoint but when they end the slideshow, it sets the display to "PC screen Only" so the screen becomes disconnected.

 

Its very annoying ! and has been around for ages without any real fix . The only fix i have found is to use a HDMI splitter.

[bknaggs]

Weird. I feel even luckier now that it's fixed it here. The calls were annoying us and the teachers.

[Miscbrah]

Anyone out there still getting this? If so what fixed it for you?

 

Currently trying that reg key alongside the policy to disable ppt extending displays in the hopes it'll work, but I'm out of options if it doesn't.

[TheRobins]

Gave up in the end. All my classroom machines now have HDMI splitters from Lindy, only £15 or so quid each, and then output to the two screens that way. To be fair, its solves a lot of issues with non tech skilled staff getting messed up with dual screen settings as well as random setting changes and windows updates resetting the layouts.

 

Also moved to Office LTSC but not sure if that would have stopped it.

 

I do feel also it may have been unique to maybe the HP desktops on a Core i3 6th gen. They will all be going this summer anyway.

[Jobos]

Gave up in the end. All my classroom machines now have HDMI splitters from Lindy, only £15 or so quid each, and then output to the two screens that way. To be fair, its solves a lot of issues with non tech skilled staff getting messed up with dual screen settings as well as random setting changes and windows updates resetting the layouts.

 

Also moved to Office LTSC but not sure if that would have stopped it.

 

I do feel also it may have been unique to maybe the HP desktops on a Core i3 6th gen. They will all be going this summer anyway.

 

We still get it and are using Office 2021 LTSC. Out of interest is it this splitter you using https://www.lindy.co.uk/audio-video-c2/splitters-c159/2-port-hdmi-10-2g-splitter-compact-p13084

[TheRobins]

I use these https://www.lindy.co.uk/audio-video-c2/splitters-c159/2-port-hdmi-10-2g-splitter-p10374

 

Oh my have they gone up in price, was paying £14 ex vat each for them, 18 months ago.

 

The ones above little more sturdy, seem to work better than the cheaper plastic ones on longer cable runs. I have 2 amazon basic splitters I tested as well from 2020, and they are still going well.

[Oaktech]

We're still seeing this with the M365 PowerPoint app. We're telling people to not start a presentation full-screen until they're attached to their dock.

[TheRobins]

It seems a more widespread issue, but nothing really mentioned on any of the Microsoft Forums,

 

It caused me hours to pain and sorting out devices, and probably translate that into lost learning/teaching time.