jaysteel

Got it!! A co-worker found a solution. If you disable the SmartBoard software add-ins within PowerPoint. The problems goes away. It's actually caused by the Aware.exe that is started by the Smartboard service and is required for the smartboard to function. But disabling the add-ins clears the issue.

I'm running into the same issue on one of my user's laptops and my own. She had the problem with 2k7 and still when I upgraded her to 2k10, and even after upgrading the system to Win7 with Off2k10 it's still there. It's doing the same thing on my laptop which is different model from hers. When the Insert Clipart search dialog is up, it loses focus. If there is a text box, your typing shows up there, otherwise it just does the default beep sound. Really frustrating. We use smartboards here too, but the problem still happens when the smartboard is disconnected.