Sounds do not play when a presentation is run on another computer in PowerPoint 2000 (262864)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2000
This article was previously published under Q262864
For a Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 version of this article, see 285521.

SYMPTOMS

When you create a presentation containing sound files, the sound files within the presentation may play perfectly on one computer, but some or all of the sound files may fail to play on another computer. You may receive the following error message:
The server application, source file, or item can't be found, or returned an unknown error. You may need to reinstall the server application.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when a presentation contains links to sound files that have been stored in another location. If the linked sound files are located in a folder that cannot be accessed from another computer, the files cannot be loaded and played.

WORKAROUND

Method 1: Embed Sound Files into the Presentation

One way to resolve this problem is to increase the Link sounds with size greater than ___ Kb setting in Microsoft PowerPoint 2000. This strategy allows you to embed the sounds into your presentation and have them play back on a different computer without copying each sound separately.

To do this, follow these steps:
  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the General tab, increase the Link sounds with size greater than ___ Kb setting to a size just larger than your largest sound file.

    The maximum size that you can enter here is 50,000 kilobytes (KB), which equals 50 megabytes (MB).
  3. Click OK.
  4. Delete the sound objects that are currently not working, and then reinsert the sounds into the slides.

    They are now embedded and should play on any computer.
NOTES:

You have to reset the play settings for each sound after you reinsert it into the original presentation.

This process increases the file size of the presentation by the size of the sound file being embedded.

These steps apply only to *.wav, *.au, and *.aiff sound files. You cannot embed MP3 sound files into PowerPoint presentations, even though PowerPoint 2000 can play MP3 files.

Use Pack and Go to Gather Sounds

Use the Pack and Go feature to bundle all the presentation and associated sound files, and then unpack these files into a directory on the new computer before running the presentation. To do so, follow these steps:
  1. On the File menu, click Pack and Go.
  2. Click Next in the Pack and Go Wizard.
  3. Click Active Presentation, and then click Next.
  4. Select where you want to create the Pack and Go file: Click A:\ or Choose destination.

    If you click Choose destination, you must navigate to the folder on a local hard drive where you want to save the file.
  5. Click Next.
  6. Click Include linked files, click Embed True Type Fonts, click Next, and then click Next again.
  7. Click Finish.
These steps create a Pack and Go file that includes the sound files but not the PowerPoint Viewer.

REFERENCES

For more information about linking and embedding, click Microsoft PowerPoint Help on the Help menu, type use linked and embedded objects to share information between office programs in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/10/2004
Keywords:kbtshoot kbsound kbnewfile kberrmsg kbprb KB262864
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