Smartboard Software with PowerPoint 2003

[naturalbornchaos]

One of our HS science teachers is having a problem with the SmartBoard but it only seems to exist when using MS PowerPoint (2003). Her desktop OS is XP Pro, all patches. She is running the most current version of SNB, and drivers are all up to date. There is a significant delay when attempting to change slides in PPT or making annotations - sometimes 3-5 seconds and sometimes it does not fully recognize contact with the board.

 

Here are the steps we have taken so far:

1. Tested other applications outside of PPT including Smart Notebook, Internet Explorer, MS Word, Excell, Desktop, and all work normally.

2. Uninstalled and reinstalled the SmartBoard drivers.

3. Replaced the USB cable, no change.

4. Tried her PowerPoint presentations on another teacher's station and SmartBoard logged in with a generic teacher account - worked fine.

5. Tried her PowerPoint presentations on her station logged in as a different user - admin and generic account - they worked fine.

6. Connected another laptop to her SmartBoard and had her login and run the presentations - issue still existed.

7. Deleted her local user profile, had her log in again - issue still existed.

8. Deleted the Smart Technologies and Smart Notebook folders in her user space thinking that there may be some temporary file in there causing the issues. No change.

9. Uninstall the Smart NoteBook software, and reinstall.

 

The issue seems to be related to her profile somehow, but I'm not sure how. We don't use roaming profiles in our District. My first thought was the there was a registry entry that was causing a problem, but since the issue occured when she was logged on to a different laptop that can't be it.

 

The only thing I can thing of to try next is to uninstall everything, go through the registry and delete any reference to SMART Technologies, delete her profile, and start from scratch. Or I could reimage it.

 

Is there anything I missed? I've seen some posts out there where other users have had issues with PowerPoint, but haven't really found a solution.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe

Edited March 4, 2010 by naturalbornchaos

[round2it]

hermmmmmmm

 

 

she defo getting a mandatory profile? same as all other teachers as you say you had to delete her local profile

 

check in ad what profile she is getting

Edited March 4, 2010 by round2it

[naturalbornchaos]

I've only spent 20 minutes or so on this. I had someone else do all the grunt work after I gave them a few suggestions via e-mail while I was in VMWare training. I would like to know what is going on, if possible, because we are adding 75 more of these Smartboards bringing us to over 125 total. I feel perfectly justified in trying to figure out what is going on as I currently have the time. I support 900 workstations/laptops working 30 hours week at this District. I think I know what I'm doing.

 

Sorry ff this sounded harsh, it was not meant to be.

Edited March 4, 2010 by naturalbornchaos

[round2it]

just seems to be profile related to that user to me Edited March 4, 2010 by round2it

[naturalbornchaos]

I know it seems to be profile related, that' what I can't figure out. No way is she getting a roaming profile. I checked her setup, Group membership, etc against some other teachers, she's the same. I thought maybe it was a video driver issue as I just reimaged her laptop for another reason a month or so ago, but if that was the case I'd think it would affect all users.

 

I don't know. I am stumped. If it IS profile related, then'll it probably come back after a reimage. Whacking her profile didn't fix the problem.

[round2it]

you got me

could you try promote her username to admin level and see if that works any differently just to see if it is a permissions thing ?

 

sorry clutching at straws here

 

 

6. Connected another laptop to her SmartBoard and had her login and run the presentations - issue still existed.

cant be video as problem existed on another laptop unless it was identical to the other

 

is it all her presentations or a few

Edited March 4, 2010 by round2it

[naturalbornchaos]

Her account is a member of our AD Group "Teachers" which is a member of the Administrators Group on the machine. (I know, that is not a good idea. But that was not my decision).

 

If we test the same file on her computer while logged in another teacher, or as a domain admin, it works fine.

 

I could possibly add her to the Domain Admins group for testing, but I'm not sure if that would make a difference as the Domain Admins group is also part of local Administrators.

 

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

 

This is def. a weird one.

[round2it]

thats the way i would go

 

full access then work backwards

keep things simple and dont take anything for granted as it always ends up as something blindingly obvious:doh:

 

hopefully the guys and girls on Edugeek might be able to help more than me

 

you could also ask sysman_MK who seemed to have the same sort of issue that you are having with the long delay in PPT.

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-software/46023-slow-responding-smartboard.html

 

see if he ever got to the bottom of it.

[naturalbornchaos]

One thing I would like to clarify. When I say that her profile was deleted, I mean that one that gets created in C:\Documents and Settings on the workstation.

[naturalbornchaos]

As of right now, it looks like the fix is to roll back the software to an older version.

[round2it]

well it is another "well thats just weird" moment to add to the list of fixes

 

why does it work for others

 

glad you fixed it and sorry i was not much help.

[naturalbornchaos]

You don't have to be sorry. I appreciate you taking the time to look at this issue, and your input.

 

As for it working for "other users", let this be a lesson NOT to take someone else's word when they look at an issue like this. Today was the first day I could sit down at the computer, and when I logged in as a domain admin (not the teacher) I experienced the dreadful slowness on the smartboard. Now, maybe something is goofed up with that profile, or the default user profile on the machine. Or maybe the person doing the troubleshooting was not totally accurate in what they were telling me.

 

Oh well, thanks again. Cheers!

[round2it]

ok the vital piece of information falls into place

[naturalbornchaos]

Yes, it would have been nice to have known that little bit of info before I posted.

[round2it]

no worries buddy any time

[MYK-IT]

HI naturalbornchaos

 

I have 'similar' issues with our SmartBoard software using PowerPoint 2003.

 

So far, the problem is with any user, on more than 1 computer with the latest version of SmartBoard software.

 

Initially, we thought it was linked to the PPT files being originally created on 2007 version then opened on version 2003. But this was not conclusive.

 

The only workaround we have found so far is to advise the teachers to open SMART Notebook software first, then open the PPT through that.

 

It does sound like a SMART software issue, I may have to contact Steljes (UK).

[naturalbornchaos]

OK, we may have narrowed it down. I have another user experencing the same issue.

 

Everything was working fine this a.m.

 

He was running SmartReponse version 2.1.307.0.

 

He was prompted to upgrade.

 

Upgraded to SmartResponse v2.5.39.0

 

Immediately[/u] after the upgrade he began experiencing problems with PowerPoint. Specifically while it is in Presentation mode. It seems to be an issue with something in the Ink layer.

 

I have yet another e-mail into Smarttech. Hopefully they will actually read this one.

[naturalbornchaos]

I thought I would update this thread, although I don't have a resolution yet. I spent about 3 hours on the phone w/ Smarttech tech support, and had them remotely to one of our laptops a few weeks ago. All of their suggestions for fixing this issue failed. They acknowledge that there is an issue, and claim to have experienced it on their end, but don't have a solution. So today I wiped a laptop and did a clean install of XP, all updates, Office 2K3 and updates. That was it, nothing else. I then installed the Smart Classroom Suite, thinking (hoping) that the newest version on a clean install would not exhibit the slowness in PowerPoint. But of course, it did. I'm 99.9% sure it is not the Board, as it works fine with a laptop that has the older version of the software on it. I still think it has something to do with the latest version of Smart Response (see my post above). I'm not sure that Smarttech even reads my e-mails. When I explained the problnem I was having on a laptop with a clean install, their suggestion was to run a utility to remove any previous versions of the Smartboard software.

This is very frustrating, I need to get this ironed out a.s.a.p. as I am in the process of building my images for next year.

[Stevenw]

I have just come across the same issue.

 

Will try going back to the earlier version tomorrow.

 

is there a way to roll back the software in smart its self of just un-install and install the older version?

 

Thanks

[naturalbornchaos]

hey Stevnw, there is a way to roll back. If you contact smart support they "should' be able to help you out. They have instructions as well as some utilites for removal and registry cleaning. I say 'should" because they still have not resolved the issue. I have done everything they asked several times, no change. Even on a clean install of XP (from CD) and Office (from CD) with NOTHING else on the laptop the problem persists. Smart supports admits that there seems to be a problem with the ink aware layer but are unwilling or unable to fix it. Good luck!

[Stevenw]

I have managed to fix one PC by un-installing the newer software and installing the old version. then disabling auto update. Iv just been informed of another PC with the same problem.