Presenter Audio Editor Freezes

Mar 14, 2011

If I try to move an animation marker to fine tune a transition in the audio time-line, the editor freezes, forcing me to kill the app(both Ppt and Articulate) using the Task Manager. I'm also experiencing the "Powerpoint experienced a serious problem with the articulate presenter ribbon". I've reloaded Office (2007) as well as updating and reloading Articulate '09 all to no avail.

1 particular slide has 18 animations (not my design) and the markers following #12 are generic (no numerical designation). Is this an issue? I created a new ppt file, inserted a couple of animated shapes, imported audio, then tried to move the markers - experienced the same freeze-up issue so the problem isn't related to a specific Ppt file.

XP Pro, Office 2007, Articulate '09 - Update 8

14 Replies
Brian Batt

Hi Eric,

If you are having issues with the Audio Editor in Presenter '09 (or the Timeline Audio Editor in Presenter 5), synchronization, animation timings, or annotations, this might be due to the non-English version of Windows you are using, and/or your regional settings. 

To resolve these issues, please see the solution that corresponds with your version of Presenter. 

Presenter '09: 

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=1321 

Presenter 5: 

http://www.articulate.com/support/kb/002545.php

If you continue to have issues, please submit a support case so that we can take a closer look at the issue:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/

Eric Larson

The solution had no effect. Something that I noticed during the reload/repair...near the end of the process, a window pops up stating 'Articulate FLV Player has encountered a problem and needs to close'. Could this possibly be part of my problem - and if so, is there a solution?

FWIW, as far as I can tell, all software/settings are U.S. version.

Brian Batt

Hi Eric,

Yes, that gives me a few ideas.  Let's try completely uninstalling & reinstalling Flash Player first:

*******Please do the following in Internet Explorer. 

Uninstall your current version of the Flash Player. Follow the steps here: 
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14157 

Download the latest version of Flash: 
http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash
Then, if you continue to have issues after restarting your computer, please submit a support case so us and we'll try a few other things:
Rob Wright

I'm having the same problems as Eric. AudioEdit freezes on save after moving any animation marker. Force quitting AudioEdit leaves PPT running ok. I've tried disabling/enabling the Presenter ribbon and communicator add-ins, uninstalling Flash and installing the current version, disabling  any other add-ins that may clash, excluding all the Articulate apps, including AudioEdit from McAfee VirusScan scanning...

I've created a single slide ppt with one fade in animation on an object. I've tried it with and without an audio narration track and the freeze occurs every time.

I recorded the freeze sequence as there was a dlog box that appeared too quickly to read after clicking save. It is a presenter progress bar that says 'Importing...' - not sure what it is trying to import??  It happens about 9-10 secs into the attached movie - you'll need to step through the frames at that point to see it.

I am using Studio 09 with latest update on a Mac/Parallels/WinXP setup with PPT 2007. I'll submit a support case but I was wondering if Eric or anyone else has found the fix for this?

Justin Wilcox

The first thing I would do is make sure your PowerPoint file is located on your C: drive. Not a network drive. Working on a network drive can cause erratic behavior. If you continue to have difficulty, I would make sure you don't have any disabled items:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=1060

If that doesn't resolve your issue, I would follow these steps making sure that you have completely disabled McAfee prior:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=2425

Installing or repairing software while an antivirus is active can cause issues with the software.

Rob Wright

Thanks for your tips Brian, which arrived overnight my time. I also had some prompt responses yesterday for the support case I submitted, which is great considering time zones differences. I re-checked and confirmed that I was complying with all the tips for using Studio on a Mac and all the necessary add-ins for ppt were ok as well.

Next is a clean-up and reinstall/repair from the bottom up which I am about to finish off this morning. I'll add your tip on making sure McAfee is completely disabled into the mix as well. Fingers crossed I am on the path to a fix.

Cheers,

Rob

Rob Wright

Still working on this one Justin - A lot of repairing and reinstalling has been happening without any joy to-date. Next is complete removal of MSOffice and reinstall to make sure I haven't any add-ins legacy behaviour going on. I found I was able to save without crashing audioEdit if I followed moving an animation marker with some sort of edit of the narration track and then saved.  

Will keep you posted...

Justin Wilcox

Hi Rob,

Sorry to hear you are still having difficulty. I know because of time zone differences it might be difficult to connect but I would be happy to set up a web conference with you with one of my senior customer support engineers to see if we can figure out exactly what's happening. They are available between 9 am and 6 pm US EST. I have already escalated your case to them and they should be following up with you today.

Rob Wright

Hi Justin,

Thanks for organising the contact with your support engineer - I am about to respond to their initial contact.

Late Friday after a remove and reinstall of ppt and a final clean up of add-ins (finally sorted an issue with the pptools add-in interface hanging around even after removing the add-in) I  thought I was onto a winner - tested the issue a couple of times and it seemed to have disappeared. Had a great weekend without the issue on my mind but when I gave it a whirl this morning the freezing is there just as before. I'm now having an issue getting a .NET Framework update to apply and when I ran another repair on my MSOffice this morning it failed to complete. I'm going to work these through with my local IT support and then re-test etc at which time I'll get back to your engineer with progress news.

Thanks again for your continued support - Cheers, Rob

Rob Wright

mmm... I had uninstalled studio before removing and reinstalling ppt and then reinstalled studio from the latest (Studio-09-Update-8) executable. On running the engage and quizmaker apps this morning an alert revealed that there was an update available - Studio-09-Update-8. I downloaded the update again and ran the update - guess what - the freezing has now gone again.

I'm just performing a restart and then will see how the .NET Framework update behaves to bring it up to date. I can't say I really understand what has happened under the hood but will see how it pans out today

Rob

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