PowerPoint going into "presentation mode" disconnects projector

[rtuite]

I'm going to try to explain this as well as I can, but it's kind of convoluted. I upgraded the soundbooth PC (runs the presentations and plays ambient music, etc.) at my small church from an HP 8000 Elite to an EliteDesk 800 G1 connected to an Optoma X600 projector as a secondary display. We still use 4:3 for our stage screen because we haven't been able to procure a 16:9 screen yet (we're small and have limited funds). The projector is connected with a DP to HDMI adapter to an extender (Element Hz ELE7081) that takes the signal over cat 6.

The old system ran the projector in 800x600 because that's the only resolution we could get to fill the screen. Higher resolutions always displayed smaller (big black border around the screen) and I never took the time to figure out why.

Now that we have the G1, it's even weirder. The only resolution that will span the screen is 1920x1080. Everything else just shrinks and sits in the middle of the display.

The biggest problem with all this is presenting with PowerPoint... the primary function of this machine. Whenever we put PowerPoint into Presenter view, the projector simply disconnects and acts like nothing is connected at all. I thought it was a resolution issue, but I've tried every resolution from 800x600 to 1920x1080. I've tried manually designating aspect ratio on the projector for both 16:9 and 4:3 as well, but it refuses to work.

 

[Math Geek]

my church uses Pro Presenter 6. it's designed specifically for church services and has a ton of tools that make it very easy to use. including built in bibles of all varieties to make adding scripture VERY quick and easy. i add stuff on the fly all the time when the pastor goes off on a tangent

not only does it output to your projector but will also add a 2nd output for the band/pastor/whomever that displays a second slide show for them or simply stays a slide ahead so they can keep everything straight. while outputting it leaves the pc screen fully usable. you can edit as you go or work with other programs or whatever and it won't effect the slide show at all. powerpoint tries to do this as well but for me it never worked as well as it could.

i'd suggest something like this over power point to make this easier for you. you can download a complete copy of the program to demo it. only thing locked out is it will watermark the output until it is registered. but you can see all it can do with no limits. the company even has a good 30 youtube videos showing all the advanced features it has. you can do pretty much a full photoshop image creation with it as well. not real expensive either for what it offers. think it's $400 which is not too bad even for a small church. https://renewedvision.com/propresenter/


with that said, your issue sounds like the power point is not able to do the presentation view correctly. check a couple things it needs active to be able to do it. your new pc just may not be configured correctly yet as many options are defaulted as turned off.

*check that multiple monitors are set-up. if you go into display properties do you see 2 displays? ask it to identify them and be sure your projector comes on as monitor 2. if not you need to turn that on and be sure the pc knows it has 2 monitors to work with. presentation view needs 2 different displays not a single one duplicated.

*now be sure power point is ready for presenter view
-In PowerPoint, choose Set Up Show from the Slide Show menu.

-Check the Show Presenter View option in the Multiple Monitors section. PowerPoint will disable this option until you enable multiple monitors.

-From the Display Slide Show On drop-down list, select the monitor you want to display the presentation.

 

[rtuite]

my church uses Pro Presenter 6. it's designed specifically for church services and has a ton of tools that make it very easy to use. including built in bibles of all varieties to make adding scripture VERY quick and easy. i add stuff on the fly all the time when the pastor goes off on a tangent

not only does it output to your projector but will also add a 2nd output for the band/pastor/whomever that displays a second slide show for them or simply stays a slide ahead so they can keep everything straight. while outputting it leaves the pc screen fully usable. you can edit as you go or work with other programs or whatever and it won't effect the slide show at all. powerpoint tries to do this as well but for me it never worked as well as it could.

i'd suggest something like this over power point to make this easier for you. you can download a complete copy of the program to demo it. only thing locked out is it will watermark the output until it is registered. but you can see all it can do with no limits. the company even has a good 30 youtube videos showing all the advanced features it has. you can do pretty much a full photoshop image creation with it as well. not real expensive either for what it offers. think it's $400 which is not too bad even for a small church. https://renewedvision.com/propresenter/


with that said, your issue sounds like the power point is not able to do the presentation view correctly. check a couple things it needs active to be able to do it. your new pc just may not be configured correctly yet as many options are defaulted as turned off.

*check that multiple monitors are set-up. if you go into display properties do you see 2 displays? ask it to identify them and be sure your projector comes on as monitor 2. if not you need to turn that on and be sure the pc knows it has 2 monitors to work with. presentation view needs 2 different displays not a single one duplicated.

*now be sure power point is ready for presenter view
-In PowerPoint, choose Set Up Show from the Slide Show menu.

-Check the Show Presenter View option in the Multiple Monitors section. PowerPoint will disable this option until you enable multiple monitors.

-From the Display Slide Show On drop-down list, select the monitor you want to display the presentation.

I'd love to switch over, unfortunately, the $400 price tag of Pro Presenter is a little hefty for us. I shelled out the $200 for the G1 out of my own pocket as a donation. I've got PowerPoint configured the same as I did on the old system, but for whatever reason, I think the video driver is spazzing out when we try to present with PowerPoint.

 

[Math Geek]

have you looked into the possibility that the adapter/extender might be flaking on you?

all you can do is one by one rule out each part until what's left has to be the problem. connect the projector directly without the extender and see if it works then. probably won't which helps point back to the pc as problem.

but ruling out the other items will help narrow down the search. no idea what driver you have installed but likely the one that came with the pc. have you gotten new drivers direct from gpu maker to see if some update has fixed an issue?

 

[rtuite]

have you looked into the possibility that the adapter/extender might be flaking on you?

all you can do is one by one rule out each part until what's left has to be the problem. connect the projector directly without the extender and see if it works then. probably won't which helps point back to the pc as problem.

but ruling out the other items will help narrow down the search. no idea what driver you have installed but likely the one that came with the pc. have you gotten new drivers direct from gpu maker to see if some update has fixed an issue?

Yes. If I put the old 8000 Elite back in, it works fine.