Any help, greatly appreciated

When I try to preview my Presenter ppt - it is "freezing"  (continuous hourglass icon).  Is there anything I can do about this?

Have to shut down ppt via task manger...then getting the "...has experienced serious problem with Articulate presenter add-in ribbon..." message

Thought maybe it was the SmartArt I had added to 2 different slides...so replaced those with text boxes from withing ppt.  STILL FREEZING-UP.  This has cost many hours of extra work, not to mention it turning into an all-nighter.  Please, can someone give me some kind of fix for this?  I have not yet found a blog advice that has worked.  I am sure there is one...but I cannot find it.

Thanks,

Kimberly