How to troubleshoot video issues in Office programs (907349)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Students and Teachers Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
  • Microsoft Office OneNote 2003
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
  • Microsoft Office XP Professional
  • Microsoft Office XP Small Business
  • Microsoft Office XP Standard
  • Microsoft Office XP Developer
  • Microsoft Office XP Students and Teachers
  • Microsoft Excel 2002
  • Microsoft FrontPage 2002
  • Microsoft Outlook 2002
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2002
  • Microsoft Access 2002
  • Microsoft Publisher 2002
  • Microsoft Word 2002
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Professional
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Standard
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Developer
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business
  • Microsoft Excel 2000
  • Microsoft FrontPage 2000
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2000
  • Microsoft Publisher 2000
  • Microsoft Access 2000

This article describes how to troubleshoot video issues in Microsoft Office programs. In this article, both general video issues and the error messages that are related to the video graphics adapter driver are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

This article describes how to troubleshoot the following video issues that may occur when you use Microsoft Office programs:
  • General video display issues
  • Error messages that are related to the video graphics adapter driver
The following is a list of some of the video related issues that you may experience when you use an Office program:
  • When you start or work with an Office program, the program stops responding (hangs) or unexpectedly quits.
  • When you try to play a movie in Microsoft PowerPoint, the screen may start to flicker.
  • You receive an error message that is similar to the following:

    "Windows detected an error due to device failure."

  • Colors do not appear on the screen as expected.
  • When you have screen redraw issues, parts of the screen are missing.

MORE INFORMATION

How to determine whether your video graphics adapter driver is causing the video issue

To determine whether the video graphics adapter driver is causing the video issue, restart your computer in Safe mode. Then, try to reproduce the video issue. To do this, follow these steps.

Note We recommend that you disable video acceleration before you try to reproduce the video issue. The program code does not change when you change the video acceleration. However, the use of problematic accelerated driver routines is disabled when you change the video acceleration. If you stop experiencing the video issue after you change the video acceleration, the video issue that you are experiencing is video graphics adapter driver-related.
  1. Click Start, and then click Shut Down.
  2. In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, click Restart.
  3. Press and hold F8 while the operating system loads.
  4. Click Safe Mode.

    Note If you are running a shared copy of Office, click Safe mode with network support.
  5. Press ENTER.
  6. Test the video issue.

    If the video issue is resolved, your video graphics adapter driver may be the cause. When you run Microsoft Windows in Safe mode, Windows uses the default settings. For example, if you run Windows in Safe mode, the VGA monitor, the Microsoft mouse driver, and the minimum device drivers that you must have to start Windows are used.

    Additionally, there is no network available. Therefore, the video issue that you are experiencing might be related to any software that extends the functionality of these default settings.

    If the video issue is not resolved, the video issue is probably not related to the video graphics adapter driver or to the video subsystem.
  7. Restart the computer in Normal mode.

What to do if your video graphics adapter driver is causing the video issue

If the video issue is caused by your video graphics adapter, use one or more of the following methods to resolve the problem:
  1. Change the screen refresh rate of the monitor. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display. Alternatively, right-click the desktop, and then click Properties.
    2. Click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.
    3. Click the Monitor tab, and then click the screen refresh rate that you want to use. If you are using Windows 2000, click the Refresh Frequency that you want to use.
    Notes
    • The default screen refresh rate setting is 60 Hertz (HZ). However, the monitor may support a higher setting. Refer to the manufacturer documentation for more information about the settings that the monitor supports.
    • If you use a higher refresh rate, you can reduce the rate at which the screen flickers. However, if you specify a screen refresh rate that is too high for the monitor, the screen may become unusable. Additionally, your hardware may be damaged.
    • Changes to the screen refresh rate affect all users who log on to the computer.
  2. Reduce the hardware acceleration. Reduce the hardware acceleration until the problem is resolved. To change the hardware acceleration, use the method that is appropriate for the Microsoft Windows operating system that you are using.

    Microsoft Windows XP

    1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
    2. Click Appearance and Themes.
    3. Click Display.

      Note If you use Windows Classic themes, use the following step:
      • Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Display.
    4. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
    5. On the Troubleshoot tab, move the Hardware acceleration slider control to the second position from your left, and then click OK.

      Note The following message is the description for this slider control position:Disable all DirectDraw and Direct 3D accelerations, as well as all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations. Use this setting to correct severe problems with DirectX accelerated applications.
    6. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.

    Microsoft Windows 2000

    1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Display.
    2. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
    3. On the Troubleshoot tab, move the Hardware acceleration slider control to the second position from your left, and then click OK.

      Note The following message is the description for this slider control position:Disable all DirectDraw and Direct 3D accelerations, as well as all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations. Use this setting to correct severe problems with DirectX accelerated applications.
    4. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.
  3. Change the screen resolution or the color quality settings. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
    2. Click Appearance and Themes.
    3. Click Display.

      Note If you use Windows Classic themes use the following step:
      • Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Display.
    4. Click the Settings tab.
    5. To change the screen resolution, try different settings to resolve the video issue by moving the Screen resolution slider control to the right or to the left.
    6. To change the color quality, try different settings to resolve the video issue. To do this, click a higher or a lower setting in the Color quality box.
To reduce video graphics adapter driver issues in Microsoft PowerPoint, follow these steps:
  1. Click Slide Show, and then click Set Up Show.
  2. Under Performance, click to select the Use hardware graphics acceleration check box.
Note These steps improve slide show performance if your computer supports hardware graphics acceleration.

For information about how to contact the third-party vendor, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K

60781 Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P

60782 Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z

REFERENCES

For more information about how to troubleshoot video display problems, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

307960 Resources for troubleshooting display problems in Windows XP

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:1/19/2006
Keywords:kbtshoot kbhowto KB907349 kbAudEndUser
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