Question Flashes in Windows Explorer and Random Restarts of the Taskbar (Windows 10)

unforces885

Honorable
Dec 25, 2017
9
0
10,510
I have a Dell Precision 5540 with Core i7-9850H, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe, NVIDIA Quadro T1000 4GB, 15.6″ Inch 4K, running Windows 10 22H2.

Recently, I have been noticing flashes in Windows Explorer and random restarts of the taskbar; all its icons disappear suddenly and load again.

As you can see in the videos, the Control Panel window flashes (Not Responding) momentarily upon simple scrolling up and down and sometime its icon in the taskbar replicates to another instance and the new instance disappears instantly.
Video 1 (Flashing Window)
https://streamable.com/v8ufx5

Video 2 (Duplicating Icon)
https://streamable.com/qfy5zr

Additional Observations:

1- I previously configure my touchpad’s three-finger gesture to be a middle click. It is functional anywhere; in Chrome to close tabs, or in Windows Explorer to open new windows if the taskbar icon is middle-clicked. But I am no longer able to close a Windows Explorer window by clicking its thumbnail preview as I used to do unless I click on an empty area on the taskbar beforehand. It seems like the preview doesn’t get the necessary focus to perform the action.
https://streamable.com/0sn0j1
2- The battery icon and sometimes the sound icon disappear from the system tray.

What I Did:

1- Updated the two graphics drivers (intel and Nvidia) to the latest drivers published in their official websites, making sure all settings are reset during installation. Result: None.
2- Reverted to the driver versions published on Dell’s website for my laptop. Result: None.
3- Reset my bios to its default values. Result: None.
4- Set “Visual Effects” in System Properties Performance Option to “Adjust for best performance”. Result: None.
5- Disabled Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling. Result: None.

I cannot remember that I have done any recent changes in my system except for the usual updates of Chrome, Thunderbird, and Avast AV.

I would appreciate any help or leads.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
In your current state, I would look into using DDU then removing all GPU drivers, then manually reinstalling with the latest GPU driver sourced form Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

However I would format and reinstall the OS, in an offline mode, then manually install all drivers for your laptop, since it seems to me that the OS is corrupt as well.
 

unforces885

Honorable
Dec 25, 2017
9
0
10,510
In your current state, I would look into using DDU then removing all GPU drivers, then manually reinstalling with the latest GPU driver sourced form Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

However I would format and reinstall the OS, in an offline mode, then manually install all drivers for your laptop, since it seems to me that the OS is corrupt as well.
Thanks for your reply.
I followed your advice and ran DDU in safemode to uninstall both drivers and reinstalled them in normal mode after a reboot. But, unfortunately, the same behavior is observed.
I also ran
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
SFC /scannow

There are no system integrity issues.
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Setting up my system will take a whole day. I would give it another try to solve the issue before reinstalling the system.