Sound does not play (PowerPoint 2003)

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This does not make sense. I have recently recorded sounds as wavs and mp3s. They will not play in PowerPoint in the computer that I am using to create the presentation (Windows XP). They do play in the same computer with WMP, Real Player and MusicMatch. They do play in PowerPoint in my other computer (ME). As a test, I have tried to insert other sounds in my presentation (XP computer). They all play perfectly! The mp3 files are 44MB; the wav files are 98MB.
Thank you very much.
Alan Silberlight

P.S. I have tried to play mp3 files that are smaller. Some play; some do not.

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AlanChris,

PowerPoint can be a bit fussy on play sounds and videos.

What version of powerpoint are you using? (not to be confused with the version of windows). See help menu > about.

How are you inserting the sounds into powerpoint? The preferred method is “insert menu > sounds > from file”.

>I have recently recorded sounds as wavs and mp3s
What software did you use to do this, and what format did you save the sound? e.g. wav , stereo, 44khz, microsoft ADPCM etc

Cheers

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Thank you for responding. It is PowerPoint 2003. I used Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 to record the incoming sound as a wav. I used MusicMatch Jukebox to convert it to mp3. I did use “Insert>Sound>From File.
After I wrote the first post, I re-converted the wav file to an mp3 file of 128 kbps and inserted it in another folder, not the folder that contained the PowerPoint presentation. It worked. Therefore, I decided to conduct a test as I write this letter. I attempted to use the same file that did not work the first time, only this time put it in another folder. It was a wav file. It worked. And again, it did not play when I inserted the file from within the same folder that contained the presentation.
While I’m glad that I was able to resolve the issue, does it not break an important rule re: PowerPoint, which is, keep every file needed for the presentation in the same folder? Is there something that I have overlooked?
Thank you again.
Alan Silberlight

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Yes, you really want to keep your sound files in the same folder as the presentation so you can keep the links intact when you move the files to other systems.

I suspect you have a path-length issue here. See #2 at Troubleshooting Video. (This page is also applicable for sound, even though it says video.)

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Thank you for the response. I do not think that it is a path problem because I cannot insert a sound in the same folder as the presentation but I can insert a sound from another folder. Also, I have not come close to the maximun path length of 128 characters. I just tried inserting a sound from another folder and it worked; from the same folder, I had no luck.
I created a test presentation. This time, I was able to insert a sound from the same folder. For some reason, there is a problem inserting a sound from the same folder as this presentation.

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If you give the folder a different name (something simple with no punctuation marks) and put it directly on your C drive (as opposed to maybe putting it on a server or in My Documents or whatever), can you insert sounds from the folder then?

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I tried your suggestion and it DID WORK!
I then conducted another test. I renamed the original folder, located in My Documents. (The original folder was called KODAK–The Beginnings Of Photographic Composition. I renamed it to “KODA”. I tried to insert the sound and IT WORKED. I then changed the name back to the original longer name, expecting it not to work. However, it did.)
It is obvious that you have helped me solve the problem. However, was the path length too long? It did not reach 128 characters. At least, I don’t think it did. And why is it that when I went back to the original folder name, expecting it not to work, it did?

Thank you again. I really do appreciate your help.

Sincerely,
Alan Silberlight

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Glad to hear things are working.

It seems as if you are indeed experiencing a path-length issue.

“My Documents” is really kinda buried, if you ask me. For example, the full path to my “My Documents” folder is C:Documents and SettingsEchoMy Documents That’s 43 characters. If I’d used my last name on my profile, it would be up to 52. Then add your folder name to that, and we have 102. C:Documents and SettingsEcho SwinfordMy DocumentsKODAK–The Beginnings Of Photographic Composition (You can paste that text into Word and use Tools–>Word Count to count the characters and spaces.)

And what is the name of the actual sound file? I’d bet it’s longer than the name of the other sound files that you could insert from that folder. When you add another and that sound file name and its extension, you’re probably over the limit.

Those characters and spaces add up quickly.

And why is it that when I went back to the original folder name, expecting it not to work, it did?

Not positive, but I’m thinking that when you renamed the folder back to its long name, you left out one of the spaces or one of the hyphens or something, and that may have been just enough to put you back under the path-length limit.

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