[SOLVED] Taskbar frozen until clicked upon launch

[Dawis67_AE]

Hi
I'm here to report another issue I'm having with Windows. Recently, not sure exactly when, I noticed some strange behavior of my PC. The first thing I noticed was that when booting up, the user-sign-in stage (I have no password so it just automatically tries to log in) takes much longer than before (maybe 20 seconds as opposed to like 3-5 previously). Once I'm at desktop all I see is the basic windows background and the taskbar but none of the startup programs are starting. When I hover my mouse over the taskbar I see the hourglass icon, which basically means not-responding taskbar. If I then, in any way, interact with the taskbar (say like right/left click on it, or press the Windows key to bring up the Start) the screen flashes black for a split second and suddenly all the programs start loading in and everything is working just fine.

So far I have tried few things:

• Clean boot: Disabled all startup programs and all non-windows services (no effect)
• Run sfc/scannow along with few DISM commands I found online when searching the problem (no effect)
• I also tried interacting with the PC in other ways to see how it responds while the issue persists. Creating a new folder on desktop by right-clicking->new-folder works just fine. I can open any folders I have on my desktop and browse through them without issue. Right-click -> Personalize or Display settings doesn't work. When I then interact with the taskbar, the screen flashes black and the settings are already open.

Another note: If I remember correctly, this issue might have started after Windows update. In general my PC for some reason acts weird on updates. I have had some previous issues after updates. This is a relatively new build, with parts I picked myself. So far I already have done 1 reinstall of windows because of a previous problem I had that I suspect started after update. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that maybe there is something I can try here but I wanna try something without immediately going to update-rollback

I hope that's enough info to hopefully get this fixed.
Thanks

 

[Colif]

tried updating gpu drivers?

what are details of the PC?

does it happen in safe mode?

1. go to settings/update & security/recovery
   
2. under advanced startup, click restart now button
   
3. this restarts PC in a blue menu
   
4. choose troubleshoot
   
5. choose advanced
   
6. choose startup options
   
7. click the restart button
   
8. choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
   
9. Pc will restart and load safe mode
   

 

[Dawis67_AE]

tried updating gpu drivers?

what are details of the PC?

does it happen in safe mode?

1. go to settings/update & security/recovery
2. under advanced startup, click restart now button
3. this restarts PC in a blue menu
4. choose troubleshoot
5. choose advanced
6. choose startup options
7. click the restart button
8. choose a safe mode (it doesn't matter which) by using number associated with it.
9. Pc will restart and load safe mode

If you are referring to Nvidia updates in GeForce Experience, yes I update regularly.

Specs:

• AMD Ryzen 7 5800x
• MSI RTX 3080 Trio
• ASUS Strix B550-I Gaming
• Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz 64GB
• WD Black SN850 1TB (Windows Install)

Alright, I tried the safe mode, but the issue still persists. When I clicked the taskbar in safe-mode I got a notification saying that the process was not responding, and if I wanted to end the process. Ending the process restarts the taskbar and it works fine.

 

[Colif]

So its either windows or a strange hardware problem.

what was the problem that made you reinstall it before?
How did you reinstall it? reset or clean install?

which version of win 10

1. right click start
   
2. choose run...
   
3. type winver and press enter
   
4. current version is 21H1
   

 

[Dawis67_AE]

So its either windows or a strange hardware problem.

what was the problem that made you reinstall it before?
How did you reinstall it? reset or clean install?

which version of win 10

1. right click start
2. choose run...
3. type winver and press enter
4. current version is 21H1

If you are interested in my previous issue, here is the thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/see-whats-happening-during-boot.3717300/#post-22411811
In short, when booting, the PC would get stuck on the rotating circles, which happened only sometimes. Not sure if I have found a solution to this, but the problem hasn't happened since I unplugged my external M.2 on the boot that one time. Now I'm running with that M.2 plugged in the whole time and the issue hasn't happened. Again if you are interested read the thread.

To answer the question, I made a full reinstall. Completely wiped all the partitions on the drive as I suspected that the issue was caused by faulty boot partition, but even after the reinstall the issue came back. But like I said, I haven't experienced it since.

My current windows version is 20H2 OS Build 19042.1165. I have checked the Windows updates and it says I'm up to date. There is however an option below that which offers me the Feature Update 21H1, but it seems like its optional. Should I just try to install it?

 

[Colif]

M.2 stopping startup makes sense, PC checks all drives at boot and if m.2 is not always answering the call, it stalls the rest of the boot process until it times out.

Also the M.2 External drive, occasionally after booting to windows doesnt connect properly so i often have to unplug and plug back the USB C connector to the external drive case to sort of re-connect the drive. Maybe Windows gets stuck because it has trouble connecting the M.2 drive sometimes???

You might have been on to something there.

the taskbar thing could still be the m.2 drive. Windows could be waiting for m.2 to respond and it just gets stuck.

taskbar run by explorer, which also looks after files. So its possible

WD Black SN850 1TB (Windows Install)

is this the M.2 or do you have another one as well?

If you still have the external hdd attached, it could be one of them too?

 

[Dawis67_AE]

M.2 stopping startup makes sense, PC checks all drives at boot and if m.2 is not always answering the call, it stalls the rest of the boot process until it times out.



You might have been on to something there.

the taskbar thing could still be the m.2 drive. Windows could be waiting for m.2 to respond and it just gets stuck.

taskbar run by explorer, which also looks after files. So its possible

is this the M.2 or do you have another one as well?

If you still have the external hdd attached, it could be one of them too?

Well, I have 2 M.2 drives. The WD Black is the one thats hard-mounted to my motherboard. The M.2 I was referring in the thread is an external one, so another one. Basically IcyBox aluminum external M.2 case with the drive in it.

I'll test booting without the external M.2 attached and let you know

 

[Colif]

if it is, it might be the case or the drive, I don't want to jump ahead, you probably come back and say it makes no difference then

 

[Dawis67_AE]

if it is, it might be the case or the drive, I don't want to jump ahead, you probably come back and say it makes no difference then

Ok, so I basically unplugged every peripheral except the keyboard and mouse, as well as unplugged my 2nd monitor and restarted the PC. The issue was still present.

I also decided to poke around a bit in the event viewer and found some interesting things.
First off, under Windows Logs -> Application I found Application hang error

Secondly, under Windows Logs -> Setup I found an error installing some Windows update, but that is an error from July, which I believe is before the issue started. Also not sure if Windows fixed and managed to install the update.

 

[Colif]

My current windows version is 20H2 OS Build 19042.1165. I have checked the Windows updates and it says I'm up to date. There is however an option below that which offers me the Feature Update 21H1, but it seems like its optional. Should I just try to install it?

try 21H1 and see if it is just windows. Version update replaces windows so might help.

 

[Dawis67_AE]

try 21H1 and see if it is just windows. Version update replaces windows so might help.

The update went surprisingly quickly, but it didn't resolve the issue

 

[Colif]

see if any of the second answer here helps (you already tried the 1st) - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...n/74fea322-9e8c-46a4-b1f1-efff1d547904?auth=1

some more fixes - https://appuals.com/fix-frozen-windows-10-taskbar/

 

[Dawis67_AE]

see if any of the second answer here helps (you already tried the 1st) - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...n/74fea322-9e8c-46a4-b1f1-efff1d547904?auth=1

some more fixes - https://appuals.com/fix-frozen-windows-10-taskbar/

Ok, well. Good news, I fixed the issue

I checked out my Reliability Monitor and found the issue listed there I decided to create MS Answers topic in hopes that some MS rep will know the hang signatures that the error log was giving me. Besides them suggesting sfc scan and reinstalling windows, that was useless.
After poking around and googling the hang signature, I found MS Answers topic where the user was having the exact same issue. The issue was caused by Razer Huntsman Mini keyboards firmware. That is the exact keyboard I just bought and that was the same day the taskbar started to freeze. I didn't make the connection because I got the keyboard the day I got back to my desktop and had whole lot of Windows updates to install. I never would have thought keyboard could break the taskbar.

Fix:

• Head over to http://drivers.razersupport.com//in...parentcategoryid=1056&pcid=1018&nav=0,77,1018
• Download and install the firmware for the Razer Huntsman Mini
• Restart the computer and the issue should be gone upon restart

Additional info:

• https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/huntsman-mini-broke-my-windows.65606/
• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...1/f00854e1-1b56-49d6-8656-fb8dffda93e6?page=1