Microsoft Powerpoint spiking issue - pulling my hair out (and there aint much left!)

[kennysarmy]

We've been investigating this issue since we got back from the Summer holidays!

 

Initially we put the issue down to electrical interference on the IWB in the classroom, but we can now replicate the issue across multiple hardware (MSI & ASUS boards - but all have an Intel on-board graphics card) without any IWB connected.

 

We've been able to replicate using different versions of Windows 10.

 

We've been able to replicate with and without graphics drivers installed, though in our office it's harder to make the issue appear, in the classroom it appears much more frequently.

 

The issue:

 

 

It appears to happen much frequently if the powerpoint is set to widescreen and the monitor is 4:3 or if powerpoint is set to 4:3 but the monitor is widescreen.

 

I'd love to know if anyone else can replicate the issue of the spiky powerpoint!

 

Open Office 2016 Powerpoint (new or old presentation)

Go to present mode

In the lower left corner select the pen tool and colour and start scribbling to your hearts content !

 

Sometimes we have to scribble for up to ten minutes before a spike appears!

[kennysarmy]

Just found this thread:

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_powerpoint-mso_win10-mso_2016/random-horizontal-lines-when-annotating-powerpoint/983ceed0-cfbf-4d1a-a017-28b3638b5bc3

[Katy]

When we've had this issue in ActivInspire on Promethean board it's always been the USB extenders at fault, never thought to test it on powerpoint though.

[Reverend_Dan]

We've had this happen with smart boards 680's, Its the usual put a bit of plastic or tape between the bottom two screws and the mounting bracket so they cant touch electrically/statically, and don't tighten them back in so hard.

[kennysarmy]

When we've had this issue in ActivInspire on Promethean board it's always been the USB extenders at fault, never thought to test it on powerpoint though.

 

We've had this happen with smart boards 680's, Its the usual put a bit of plastic or tape between the bottom two screws and the mounting bracket so they cant touch electrically/statically, and don't tighten them back in so hard.

 

We can recreate the issue with no board attached to a PC in my office, so I'm convinced it's nothing to do with any attached devices.

 

Our next step is to re-image a PC for the teacher and install everything he uses for this board BUT NO OFFICE 2016 for a day and see if he can get the issue to appear in any other interactive software...

[ZeroHour]

So this is happening with just a usb mouse plugged in?

Front ports or back ports?

[kennysarmy]

So this is happening with just a usb mouse plugged in?

Front ports or back ports?

 

It matters not....with nothing plugged in we can do it using VNC

[MkII]

A colleage says it's down to firmware - the spiking is a known issue?

[Duke5A]

What happens if you turn off hardware acceleration in Power Point? Options > Advanced > Display

[kennysarmy]

What happens if you turn off hardware acceleration in Power Point? Options > Advanced > Display

 

Still occurs.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

A colleage says it's down to firmware - the spiking is a known issue?

 

There is a question on the answers.microsoft site with around 80 people with the same question - so I'd hope MS are aware - but it appears to be on-going for several years with no fix.

 

Firmware of the PC?

[Arthur]

Firmware of the PC?

Could it be caused by high DPC latency? You may see the spikes in PowerPoint happen at the same time there are spikes in DPC latency.

 

You can check with LatencyMon.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Arthur

[MkII]

There is a question on the answers.microsoft site with around 80 people with the same question - so I'd hope MS are aware - but it appears to be on-going for several years with no fix.

 

Firmware of the PC?

 

No the IWB

[kennysarmy]

No the IWB

 

The issue happens with no IWB connected....

[kennysarmy]

No the IWB

 

This is from one of our older PC's just taken out of service, Intel DH61CR board, Intel Core i7-3770, 8 GB RAM.

 

Slide size was Widescreen (16:9) - connected monitor to PC is a standard 4:3 iiyama Prolite

 

Office version is 16.0.4738.1000 32-bit

 

It took a few slides but I was eventually able to get a spike!

 

[mavhc]

So it happens when using just a mouse?

[kennysarmy]

So it happens when using just a mouse?

 

Yep...

[Hybrid]

I have a member of staff with EXACTLY the same issue as you have. I'm currently working on it but it does seem we aren't alone.

 

Here's a thread I found which is pretty recent. It mentions an issue with the Intel HD graphics card too.

 

https://community.prometheanworld.com/en/discussion/7002448/pen-spikes-when-using-in-power-point-2016

[TwistedHelixis]

Do you have smart notebook installed? with ink tools?

[kennysarmy]

Do you have smart notebook installed? with ink tools?

 

Nothing, bare Windows 10 image.

 

Just trying with the 64 bit version of Office 2016

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I have a member of staff with EXACTLY the same issue as you have. I'm currently working on it but it does seem we aren't alone.

 

Here's a thread I found which is pretty recent. It mentions an issue with the Intel HD graphics card too.

 

https://community.prometheanworld.com/en/discussion/7002448/pen-spikes-when-using-in-power-point-2016

 

That's a thread I was posting to

Edited October 9, 2018 by kennysarmy

[mavhc]

Wonder if you can use a mouse recorder to log the mouse positions, see whether the mouse moves or powerpoint is broken

[chazzy2501]

I'd uncheck the power saving of the intel graphics (esp. refresh rate changes) I'd also raise the priority of PowerPoint to realtime to see if that helps.

[FishCustard]

I'd uncheck the power saving of the intel graphics (esp. refresh rate changes) I'd also raise the priority of PowerPoint to realtime to see if that helps.

 

Don't raise the priority of anything to real-time. Very bad idea and a good way to lock up the machine. See here. Whatever this is, I'll eat a shoe if it's priority related.

[ZeroHour]

I keep suspecting this is being caused by the intel graphics. What model is the onboard?

Intel have a pretty shocking history of drivers, for example the latest one for my pc for 1809 broke hdmi sound output to 2.0 rather than 5.1. Rolling back fixed it, ironically the notes said they had *fixed* a bug relating to sound detection via hdmi.

Are you using the inbuilt w10 drivers or the ones from Intel's site?

[Arthur]

I keep suspecting this is being caused by the intel graphics. What model is the onboard?

Intel HD Graphics 4000 (according to post #14).

[ZeroHour]

Intel HD Graphics 4000 (according to post #14).

Derp didnt spot where the board was listed, cheers.