PowerPoint starts then immediately quits or crashes

PPTools
Shape Styles brings the power of styles to PowerPoint. Apply complex formatting with a single click
Merge Excel, CSV or tab-delimited data into PowerPoint presentations to create certificates, awards presentations, personalized presentations and more
FixLinks prevents broken links when you distribute PowerPoint presentations
Optimizer saves disk space and bandwidth, shrinks your PowerPoint presentations to the right size for email, screenshow or printing
PPT2HTML gives you full control of PowerPoint HTML output, helps meet Section 508 accessibility requirements
Prep4PDF preserves interactivity in PowerPoint presentations when you convert to PDF
Image Export converts PowerPoint slides to JPG, PNG, GIF, WMF and more

Press Control+Alt+Delete to get the task list. If PowerPoint is listed, end the PowerPoint task.
Then try to start PowerPoint again.

When PPT crashes, it may leave parts of itself running. Since it only allows you to run one instance of itself, the next time you start, it sees itself already running and quits.

Also while PowerPoint is not running, do a file search on *.PCB files. You should find one named either PowerPnt.PCB or <your user name>.PCB If it's more than just a few k, rename it to something else or delete it. Some versions of PowerPoint can't start if the PCB file is too large.

Finally, check out the following knowledge base articles:

OFF2000: Program Quits Immediately After Starting When SR-1/SR-1a Update Is
Applied

OFF2000: Program Quits Immediately After Installing Project or Visio

OFF2000: Error Messages Starting Office Program, or Program Immediately Quits on Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000 (Q236592) which explains how registry permissions problems can prevent Office apps from starting up.

Error message when you try to start or to exit PowerPoint 2003: "Setup Error, Failed to load resources from resource file" (note that you may or may not see this exact message. PowerPoint may simply display its "PowerPoint has found an error and must close" dialog box and quit. The problem in this case is the MS Data Assistant add-in. Uninstalling it solves the problem.

PowerPoint starts, then displays "MS Power Point has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." then quits and tries to send an error report to Microsoft.

This could be a problem with your video drivers. Try getting updated drivers from the manufacturer or changing the settings of the existing one. Rightclick the Windows desktop, choose Properties and go to the Settings tab.

• Change the color "depth" (24-bit or 32-bit color instead of 16-bit color)
• Change the resolution (800x600 or 1024x768 instead of higher values)
• set hardware acceleration back
• Temporarily disable multimonitor support if it's enabled

Contents © 1995-2008 Stephen Rindsberg, Rindsberg Photography, Inc. and members of the MS PowerPoint MVP team. You may link to this page but any form of unauthorized reproduction of this page's contents is expressly forbidden.

content authoring & site maintenance by

Friday - The Automatic FAQ Maker