Task Manager Won't Open, No Error Messages.

Mishigi

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
5
0
10,510
I've been scouring multiple forum posts all across the web trying to fix this problem for the past week or so, and nothing seems to help or be quite the same to my problem. Hoping you guys can help me out here.

So, as the title says, I am no longer able to open my Task Manager. At all. There's no error message, no reaction to any method of opening it.

I've tried right clicking the task bar, and unlike some other people's problems it is not grayed out. It looks normal, but does nothing.

I've tried CTRL ALT DLT, in which the option is also still there, but does nothing.

I've tried CTRL SHIFT ESC, where holding that down would make the little loading circle near my mouse flicker. So I can tell it's Trying to do something but isn't.

I've tried running it through Run, which also did nothing.

And I've tried double clicking taskmgr.exe itself, which still did nothing.

I've also noticed that many of my games are no longer capable of running. I can provide a list of the ones I've found and what happens if it'll help.

My anti-virus is enabled and I've done a full scan to no avail.

Also whenever I restart my computer, I get an error message stating that SiSpkt.dll was not designed to run on this version of windows or contains an error.
After searching for 2 hours, I literally found no information on this file whatsoever. It was increasingly annoying finding nothing but dozens of identical programs saying they'll fix it for free, when really they just scan for problems and make you pay to fix them. I have no real idea what this .dll does, but they're located in the ASUS folders. I've tried replacing them but it didn't do anything.

I don't know if all of this is related or not, but I'm at my wit's end here. Oh, and Regedit does still run. I saw that was another problem that accompanied many people who couldn't run Task Manager, but I can still run mine.

Anyways, thanks in advance for any assistance that can be provided, I really have no clue what to do next. :??:
 
Just let it run, it might take over an hour even on systems with Solid State Drives.
- If you have heaps of stuff on your C: it might take more than an hour.

I wouldn't worry about making notes, and yes, at the end there is an executive summary which should be more than enough information to pick up where we've left off.

Regardless of an infection being cleaned up I would make another user account using Control Panel then check if the 'Test User' has the same problem afterwards, chances are your current user account is totally stuffed.

If your user account is an admin account, make a new admin account (and never log into it), then make some new user accounts and use your PC as a 'user' instead of as an 'admin'.

If there is an infection: Once you have a new 'hopefully clean' admin account, and a fresh user account, log in as the user and delete the old admin account after backing up what you need from it. (using the credentials of the 2nd admin account to do it).


Who knows, maybe your keyboard just isn't working?
 
Just let it run, it might take over an hour even on systems with Solid State Drives.
- If you have heaps of stuff on your C: it might take more than an hour.

I wouldn't worry about making notes, and yes, at the end there is an executive summary which should be more than enough information to pick up where we've left off.

Regardless of an infection being cleaned up I would make another user account using Control Panel then check if the 'Test User' has the same problem afterwards, chances are your current user account is totally stuffed.

If your user account is an admin account, make a new admin account (and never log into it), then make some new user accounts and use your PC as a 'user' instead of as an 'admin'.

If there is an infection: Once you have a new 'hopefully clean' admin account, and a fresh user account, log in as the user and delete the old admin account after backing up what you need from it. (using the credentials of the 2nd admin account to do it).


Who knows, maybe your keyboard just isn't working?
 

Mishigi

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
5
0
10,510
Okay It's finally finished. Is there a specific place the log is stored?

Edit: I made a new Standard account and went onto it and the task manager still doesn't run with any method.
 
It usually just logs the summary to the screen.
- There may be a log file somewhere, but it sounds like it didn't detect anything as you still have the same problem.

Do you have a Windows OEM DVD-ROM?, or did your machine come with other Recovery Media? (far worse usually, but better than nothing).
- You can't do a Windows Repair without a real Windows DVD-ROM, and if you didn't get one with your machine the support doco should explain how your machines OEM differs the process.

Can you confirm that your [Ctrl], [Alt] and [Delete] keys work normally?

Can you type TASKMGR.EXE into the Start Menu of the Standard User account, and launch it using the [Enter] key?

Can you type MSINFO32.EXE into the Start Menu of the Standard User account and have it launch normally?
- So you can provide more details about your specific computer, such as the model or motherboard model, etc.

It looks something like this:
msinfo32systeminformation.png

- The above is not my machine, just an example already on the web.
 
FYI: "It was increasingly annoying finding nothing but dozens of identical programs saying they'll fix it for free, when really they just scan for problems and make you pay to fix them." --- None of these programs do any good and over 90% of them are Trojan Horse delivery systems for advanced malware and rootkits. Often they install upwards of 8,000 virus infections, and not all the same infection.

If you have installed and executed just 'one' of these applications (usually in Google Ads) then I can guarantee that your PC is infected by something rather bad-ass. Bad-ass enough not to be cleaned by the latest GFI/VIPRE Recovery.

Basically this means that even in Safe Mode that the malware/rootkit/virus/trojan/etc. (of which there may be more than one) is still been loaded.

Once Safe Mode is gone you need to re-install (or repair if an option) the Operating System.
 

Mishigi

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
5
0
10,510
It would appear that I can't even open my Device Manager to know if I have a DVD ROM. Is there another way of finding out?

And yes, Ctrl Alt Delete still works, but the Task Manager still doesn't work with any method, including pressing enter after searching it in the start menu. The program is there, it just doesn't do anything.

I can open up MSINFO32.exe normally. What information do you need to know?