PPT97: I/O Error 6 Opening PowerPoint Files

ID: Q176529

The information in this article applies to:
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

When you click Open on the File menu, you may experience one of the following symptoms: When the current folder has subfolders, all subfolders except the last may be displayed as question marks or squares.

NOTE: If you double-click any of the subfolders that appear as question marks or squares, or attempt to open a presentation, you may receive one of the following error messages:

An unexpected error occurred - I/O Error 0
An unexpected error occurred - I/O Error 6
-or-
PowerPoint found an error it cannot correct.
NOTE: PowerPoint presentations may open correctly if you select them from the Most Recently Used (MRU) list on the File menu, or if you double-click the file in Windows Explorer.


CAUSE

The Microsoft Office 97 settings stored in the registry have become corrupted.


RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To correct this problem, you must remove the Office 97 settings from the registry. To remove the damaged Office 97 registry settings, and re-register PowerPoint, follow these steps:

NOTE: The following steps will remove all user specific settings for all of the Office applications. All user specific settings will have to be reconfigured manually.

  1. On the Windows Start menu, click Run.


  2. In the Open box, type Regedit, click OK.


  3. Expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key until you see this folder:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0


  4. Delete the 8.0 folder only.


  5. Quit the Registry editor.


  6. Shut down and restart Windows.


  7. Once you have returned to Windows, place your Office or PowerPoint CD in the CD-ROM drive.


  8. On the Windwos Start menu, click Run.


  9. Type the following line, and press OK:

    D:\Setup.exe /y

    where D:\ is the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive. Setup will start Maintenance mode.


  10. Choose Reinstall, and allow setup to complete. Setup will not copy any files to the system. Running setup with the /y switch only updates the registry settings.


You now should be able to open the presentation.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: powerpnt ppt powerpt ppt97 pp97 input output sys six can't finds find encountered io box, boxes, squares, question marks, garbage scramble scrambled) 


Keywords          : kberrmsg kbusage kbdta 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: April 15, 1999