video doesn't play in powerpoint

I'm not using video backgrounds in powerpoint but just inserting videos using the Insert command but post here hoping you video presenters with video knowledge can help me.

1. I checked that the video would run in the MCI player (mplay32.exe). They do.
2. I moved the movie into the local folder in case the path was too long. But that didn't help.
3. I turned off hardware acceleration in the control panel/ display manager. That's not the problem either.

The very same video used to play fine on the very same computer (Dell, Latitude D600, Windows XP) last year, when I gave the same presentation. So, it must be a matter of some configuration changes, but I don't have a clue what it could be.

Hope someone can help.

Hi Niko, welcome to the 123PPT Community and PowerPoint Forum.

It may very well be a hardware driver issue.

If PowerPoint is importing the video and showing the first frame but not playing the video file itself and the file does run using MCI Player, then it is almost certainly a video driver issue.

Right click your desktop and select Properties from the dialog box.

Click the Settings tab and then press the Advanced button.

Select the Adaptor tab, you will see the name of your graphics card.

Download the latest device drivers for this card and install them on your PC.

As it's a more dated pc you are using, it may well be that a software installation since last year has written over parts of the driver with older files or older codecs that is preventing PowerPoint from playing the video files. This is usually the case when PowerPoint displays the video file but cannot play it.