PowerPoint Keeps Crashing or Freezing During Presentations

There’s nothing more stressful than PowerPoint freezing mid-presentation or crashing when you’re on deadline. These crashes typically happen because of:

• Overloaded slides with heavy media
• Outdated graphics drivers
• Corrupted add-ins
• Compatibility issues
• Damaged template files

Here are 5 proven fixes, ordered from quickest to most thorough:

Method 1: Disable Hardware Acceleration (5-minute fix for most crashes)

1. Open PowerPoint
2. Go to:
   File → Options → Advanced
3. Under Display, check:
   ☑️ Disable hardware graphics acceleration
4. Click OK and restart PowerPoint

Why this works: Prevents GPU-related crashes, especially on older computers.

Method 2: Clean Up Problem Slides (For presentation-specific crashes)

If PowerPoint only crashes with certain files:

1. Open the problematic presentation
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager
3. Note memory usage while:
   • Advancing through slides
   • Playing animations/transitions
4. Identify and simplify resource-heavy slides with:
   • 4K videos → Convert to 1080p
   • Complex animations → Reduce quantity
   • High-res images → Compress (Picture Format → Compress Pictures)

Method 3: Reset PowerPoint’s Registry Settings (Fixes persistent freezes)

1. Close PowerPoint completely
2. Press Windows Key + R, type:

regedit 

3. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\PowerPoint 

4. Right-click the PowerPoint folder → Delete
5. Restart PowerPoint (it will recreate default settings)

Warning: Backup your registry first (File → Export).

Method 4: Repair Office Installation (For frequent random crashes)

1. Open Control Panel → Programs
2. Select Microsoft Office → Change
3. Choose:
   • Quick Repair (5-10 minutes)
   • If still crashing: Online Repair (30+ minutes, more thorough)

Method 5: Create a New PowerPoint Profile (Last resort for stubborn cases)

1. Press Windows Key + R, type:

%appdata%\Microsoft 

2. Rename these folders:
   • PowerPoint → PowerPoint_old
   • Templates → Templates_old
3. Restart PowerPoint

Bonus: Prevention Tips

✔ The 10MB Rule: Keep individual presentations under 10MB
✔ The 3-Second Test: All animations should complete in ≤3 seconds
✔ The Sandbox Trick: Test presentations on Zoom/Teams before going live

Did one of these methods work?
🔹 Method 3 fixed my years-long freezing issue!
🔸 Compressing videos saved my 50-slide deck!

Let us know your success story in the comments!

(Need the Excel version of this guide? Drop a request below!)