[ms office - 2016] Power Point crashing...

[Koldov]

I know... ridiculous title for a thread (almost as ridiculous as trying to search using it in Google and finding any meaningful results), but hey-ho, here we go...

 

Office 2016

Windows 10 LTSC

Sophos

VGA to projector (duplicated screen as most don't even know how to extend).

Various laptops but mostly Intel GFX

 

I am starting to get more and more reports of PowerPoint crashing (just had a laptop brought to me that required a hard reset).

 

Nothing has really changed in terms of the network or OS (apart from updates of course), or anti-virus (Sophos for a couple of years).

 

Haven't had a chance to investigate it thoroughly as obviously half of the teachers just reboot or do something else and the other half don't even bother reporting it.

 

Just wondered if anyone has noticed any kind of uptick in this sort of thing happening recently (noticed a few Office updates in the last couple of months)?

[Jawloms]

Office 2016, W10 LTSC, Sophos, VGA to projector, not had this reported. First thing I'd look at is video drivers I think. Are they on "Duplicate" or "Extend"? Does one cause the issue more than the other?

[Koldov]

As sure as I can be that video drivers aren't updating (clients on WSUS for updates 'no drivers' - also laptops are so old I don't think anyone has actually updated any drivers for these in years - also various makes/models).

 

As mentioned I'm presuming screens are duplicated as most don't use extend.

 

From my research so far it seems depending on the PowerPoint presentation there could be issues with it extending by default...?

 

Also, there may be an issue with 'Presenter View'... I did notice the one brought to me was in this view mode (and when I open the presentation that is the default).

[Jawloms]

As sure as I can be that video drivers aren't updating (clients on WSUS for updates 'no drivers' - also laptops are so old I don't think anyone has actually updated any drivers for these in years - also various makes/models).

 

As mentioned I'm presuming screens are duplicated as most don't use extend.

 

From my research so far it seems depending on the PowerPoint presentation there could be issues with it extending by default...?

 

Also, there may be an issue with 'Presenter View'... I did notice the one brought to me was in this view mode (and when I open the presentation that is the default).

 

We turn off Presenter View by default as so many teachers don't seem to be able to cope with it.

[DavR]

A while back we were suffering white-screen hangs on a lot of Microsoft Office 2016 applications. I read a few things that linked it to the new Exploit Protection Export Address Filtering (EAF) behaviour that a Windows Update had introduced. We turned this off using Known Issue Rollback, and things seem to be behaving a bit better recently.

 

https://thewincentral.com/microsoft-rolls-back-windows-10-update-kb5005101-using-known-issue-rollback-for-resolving-multiple-issues/

 

May not apply to you on LTSC, may not even be what fixed it for us, but sharing in case it's any use.

[Koldov]

Thanks all!

 

So far I've put in a GPO with the following, just in case it is the PP view mode messing with the topology in the GFX driver causing the crash... So I guess I'll wait and see...

 

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

 

Also added these regedits, which may be deprecated as they don't seem to have associated GPO entries for some reason (but I don't think it will hurt)...

 

Hive - HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key path - Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint\Options

Value name - UseMonMgr

Value type - REG_DWORD

Value data - 0x0 (0)

 

Hive - HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key path - Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint\Options

Value name - RestoreTopology

Value type - REG_DWORD

Value data - 0x1 (1)

 

Always wondered why everything in the settings for a program or OS version doesn't have a GPO entry...

[KK20]

Is it a laptop? Is the laptop docked? Does it work if NOT docked (i.e. all cables plugged in manually)? If so, is it a generation

[Koldov]

We seem to have narrowed the issue down to using 'White Rose' maths resources...

 

Absolutely no idea why this would be an issue, obviously something to do with the content or settings in their PowerPoints, but I wouldn't have a clue where to start looking!