Question Parts of Windows 10 stopped working

Craig234

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Sometimes I need to control-ald-delete and run task manager for various things. Now, when I click 'task manager', nothing happens. If I windows+r and type 'taskmgr', also nothing happens. I googled it and it had some things saying to use 'windows+s', that also does nothing. I've power cycled, and it didn't help.

There are some strange delays, like I tried opening Malwarebytes and it hung for a long time and disappeared. When I try to type a program name in the windows taskbar search window, the cursor won't activatge in the box to type anything. The windows start button won't click, either, in fact nothing on the taskbar will click now. (New as I type this post, or I couldn't have opened the browser)). Windows 10 64 bit.

I rebooted again, the task bar is working, but Malwarebytes is frozen again so far, and task manager still won't start. Now when I click Malwarebytes again, instead of coming up with a frozen window, it's not coming up with anything.

And, the taskbar stopped working again as I typed this update... like, I moused over notebad and it said 'notepad' but wouldn't open, now when I mouse over it the cursor changes but it doesn't even say notepad.

Update: Rebooted yet again, this time I started Malwarbytes before opening the browser and it worked, scanned and nothing found, and task manager started. Started the browser for this update, and so far they're both still running. Not sure what else to check.

When I open the browser it behaves a bit differently than normal - it gets a white screen for about 10-15 seconds before displaying the tabs. After opening Edge, I tried to run another scan in Malwarebytes, and this time it's hung... Maybe I'll start closing some of the dozens of browser tabs, in case one is causing a problem.

After some minutes: taskbar not working, malwarebytes still hung, but task manager is still working.

I don't really see anything unexpected in task manager. One other little clue: the clock is no longer displayed on the bottom right taskbar.
 
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Sometimes I need to control-ald-delete and run task manager for various things. Now, when I click 'task manager', nothing happens. If I windows+r and type 'taskmgr', also nothing happens. I googled it and it had some things saying to use 'windows+s', that also does nothing. I've power cycled, and it didn't help.

There are some strange delays, like I tried opening Malwarebytes and it hung for a long time and disappeared. When I try to type a program name in the windows taskbar search window, the cursor won't activatge in the box to type anything. The windows start button won't click, either, in fact nothing on the taskbar will click now. (New as I type this post, or I couldn't have opened the browser)). Windows 10 64 bit.

I rebooted again, the task bar is working, but Malwarebytes is frozen again so far, and task manager still won't start. Now when I click Malwarebytes again, instead of coming up with a frozen window, it's not coming up with anything.

And, the taskbar stopped working again as I typed this update... like, I moused over notebad and it said 'notepad' but wouldn't open, now when I mouse over it the cursor changes but it doesn't even say notepad.

Update: Rebooted yet again, this time I started Malwarbytes before opening the browser and it worked, scanned and nothing found, and task manager started. Started the browser for this update, and so far they're both still running. Not sure what else to check.

When I open the browser it behaves a bit differently than normal - it gets a white screen for about 10-15 seconds before displaying the tabs. After opening Edge, I tried to run another scan in Malwarebytes, and this time it's hung... Maybe I'll start closing some of the dozens of browser tabs, in case one is causing a problem.

After some minutes: taskbar not working, malwarebytes still hung, but task manager is still working.

I don't really see anything unexpected in task manager. One other little clue: the clock is no longer displayed on the bottom right taskbar.
Run a pass of 'sfc scannow' see if it helps.
 

Craig234

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Do I do that from command line? What I'm finding is that the issues start after I start the browser. I was closing tabs, and then I could see and click tabs, but every page was whitescreen, so I rebooted again. Malwarebytes again, no problem, started browser, taskbar and windows+r not working.

Another little oddity. When I used to close a tab, it immediately closed. Now, it sort of changes size for a few seconds, and then closes.
 
Do I do that from command line? What I'm finding is that the issues start after I start the browser. I was closing tabs, and then I could see and click tabs, but every page was whitescreen, so I rebooted again. Malwarebytes again, no problem, started browser, taskbar and windows+r not working.

Another little oddity. When I used to close a tab, it immediately closed. Now, it sort of changes size for a few seconds, and then closes.
Yes from a command line.
You might also need to run it as an admin.
 

Craig234

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I ran sfc /scannow, it said it found errors and repaired files. It created a pretty huge, hard to read cbs log file. After that I started the browser for this post, and the taskbar isn't working again. Though the time is displayed. Taskl manager won't start. Even though I had two cmd boxes open, alt tab does nothing.
 

Craig234

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I rebooted, ran sfc /scannow again, it said no errors found. But taskbar not working again.

FYI, just before this problem started, I tried running the game fallout on gog, which had hung my computer months ago. It hung it again and I power cycled, then the problems started.
 

Craig234

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I haven't tried a different browser. I'm not sure how reinstalling Edge works, since it's build in to the OS; and I don't want tolose my tabs.

I just hit alt tab, and it gave me four choices; but selecting any of them did nothing, so I picked the browser, and now alt tab does nothing. Basically I either have a PC or a browser, my pick.
 

Craig234

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Wild guess: starting fallout blackscreened the computer; it didn't simply power off, but I had to hold the power button down several seconds, so maybe there was a program that didn't want to close; and I'm gussing the power off corrupted something.

Seems like time to look at system restore, but I doubt I had it turned on and never really use it.
 

Craig234

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I ran restore, it found a checkpoint from three days ago, I ran it. It ran a long time, and rebooted, and when I booted it had an error, failed to restore, got an unknown error, no files were changed...
 
I haven't tried a different browser. I'm not sure how reinstalling Edge works, since it's build in to the OS; and I don't want tolose my tabs.

I just hit alt tab, and it gave me four choices; but selecting any of them did nothing, so I picked the browser, and now alt tab does nothing. Basically I either have a PC or a browser, my pick.
I don't use edge so no idea what you can or can not do with that.

Perhaps grab a copy of firefox and test.
 

Craig234

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I got back to restore, for some weird reason there were two restore points minutes apart. I tried the older one, not sure if it was the same one the system picked earlier. Again, it failed.

So I tried again, this time I clicked to 'show other restore points'. There was one older one from Sep 27. I tried it. It failed. Now I'm running Chrome instead of Edge; so far, it's working ok. So I might need to try to clear out edge tabs, save ones I want, and reinstall it... man what a headache for trying to run fallout.
 

Craig234

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I'm not sure what you mean by 'full technical specs', or what's relevant. The correlation with the power-off seems pretty clear. Its an Intel i7-4790K, 16MB, 512 SSD with Windows (a bit of a weird setup on that, running from a second install), a 6TB HD and I think an RX 570 card.

I'll have to find out about HDtune. Edit: It's $35; not sure about the ethics of a 'free trial' if I'm not buying it.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by 'full technical specs', or what's relevant. The correlation with the power-off seems pretty clear. Its an Intel i7-4790K, 16MB, 512 SSD with Windows (a bit of a weird setup on that, running from a second install), a 6TB HD and I think an RX 570 card.
Model names of
storage devices,​
motherboard,​
PSU (read this from label printed on PSU).​
I'll have to find out about HDtune. Edit: It's $35; not sure about the ethics of a 'free trial' if I'm not buying it.
HDtune 2.55 version is free.
 
Well, it's a WD HD, a Samsung SSD, a Z97 MBm
That's not a proper model info.
WD and Samsung have hundreds of different model HDDs and SSDs.
And Z97 is just a chipset name. Also several hundreds of different manufacturer different Z97 boards are out there.
Storage device names are visible in HDtune screenshots:
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB and​
WD Black WD6003FZBX 6TB​

Anyway ... health of storage devices look good.
Diagnose Samsung SSD with Samsung Magician software.
 

Craig234

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Well, WD doesn't have hundreds of 6TB HD's nor Samsung hundreds of 500GB SSD's, but that's why I asked what you were looking for. It's an ASRock Z97 Extreme6.

I'll see what samsung magician says...
 
Well, WD doesn't have hundreds of 6TB HD's nor Samsung hundreds of 500GB SSD's
Together they have different hdd/ssd model names in hundreds (all the possible models ever produced).
What info did you want from Magician? It says 'drive health good 120TB written' and 'temperature 36 C normal'.
Generally you look at Magician SMART section - critical warnings, media errors, temperature warnings e.t.c.
 

jnxzi94

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I'm also having problems with Windows taskbar, it becomes unresponsive. That's horrible, because I have a i9 which is incredibly powerful and I have issues in simple Windows tasks, what is wrong with Windows lately...? I'm thinking about doing a fresh install...