Windows 10: Host of Problems

Hi, I've been having a lot of trouble with my laptop. I'm not sure if these are problems even related to Windows 10, but I was perhaps hoping someone could help steer me to the right places. Some of these problems are

-Audio Driver
This has been crashing on me with some frequency in the past month. It tends to happen more often if I have a Steam game open, listening to a Twitch stream on Chrome, listening to music on iTunes, and connected to voice chat on Discord (yes, audiophiles, go ahead and faint). I'm usually able to restore it via right click -> Troubleshoot sound problems, but it bothers me nonetheless. Is this... normal?

-msdt.exe
This happened only once so far, but I got a "Bad Image" error when trying to restore my audio. Not only was I unable to restore my audio, windows explorer got sunk a few moments later and I was forced to restart through CTRL-ALT-DEL.

-Network issues upon start-up
For the past week, I've had errors with my wired connection, where I basically had no internet connection because of a problem with "gateway protocols." Troubleshooting didn't do anything, I'm only able to work around this by changing the Ethernet ports every time I start my computer

-Start menu/Windows Explorer being extremely sluggish or failing to completely load on start-up
The somewhat slow start doesn't bother me as I disabled Quick Start (the laptop's extreme sensitivity to "waking up" when this option is enabled is irritating as I use this laptop on the go as well as occasional streaming to Twitch, which does put a decent amount of stress on the machine). But from time to time, pressing the Start Menu icon doesn't do anything. Nor search. Sometimes, the clock, speakers, and applications pinned to my task bar fail to appear. Whenever this happens, I can't do anything but open whatever is on my desktop or CTRL-ALT-DEL and restart my system.

Somewhat related, but not immediately after start-up, Search by itself will not open despite having been used an hour or two prior.

-Random apps crashing
This is something I should probably bring up with forums dedicated to these apps, but I wanted to make a brief mention of Gyazo, RaidCall, Puush, and Discord. Gyazo usually crashes if I try to use it's screen capture function, I've almost given up on this after reinstalling it 4 times. RaidCall would sometimes stop responding, either after being left idle for a while or when pressing a web link. It would then refuse to relaunch until I signed out and back into my computer. Puush used to have similar problems with Gyazo, except it would crash if I tried to right click the menu tray icon. This stopped being an issue after reinstalling once or twice, but these days, I often do not get a response from right clicking it right away-- I have to rearrange the Puush icon with another before the right click menu comes up. Discord has a similar problem to RaidCall in that web links will often crash the app, but it would otherwise relaunch normally.


I suspect viruses/malware are not involved. No program is perfect, but I think Avast and Malwarebytes keep my system relatively clean of these. I got this laptop last August, which was preinstalled with Windows 8. I downloaded Windows 10 perhaps 1-3 days after getting it.

I apologize for dumping a lot of vague information. Would logs from the Event Viewer help at all? I don't remember how to access that though.

:)

 

start menu stopped working

Cannot get start menu to pop up. Worked till yesterday, now won't. Turned off computer and back on - still won't work

 

Host of Windows 10 problems after Oct. 15 update

I upgraded my 2015 laptop from Windows 8.2 to Windows 10 as soon as it became available and it was wonderful! Everything worked perfectly until Oc. 15, when Microsoft sent a giant update that basically destroyed my computer. I couldn't go online until my
computer had been on for at least 12 hours. I checked the threads here for problems and tried every "fix." I can now get online, but I'm no longer to access the Microsoft cloud because I had to switch to a "local" account. This is frustrating as I can't access
documents I put on the cloud, and I can't figure out how to regain access. I receive constant error messages -- when I try to print, when I update my websites, when I try to open documents attached to emails. My "favorites" disappeared. My start menu no longer
functions. For example, when I try to "pin" the Microsoft Office Word app to Start, I get message that the app is there. But, it's not. Worst of all, I can't access the photos I have stored on my computer. I click on the "Photo" app, the photos come onto the
screen for 5 seconds, then disappear.

Is there a way to "undo" this devastating update? I want my computer back!

 

Is this an upgrade to Windows 10 or a clean install

With some computers, upgrading will cause more problems than good.

Also, is it a preinstalled system?

Some preinstalled systems may have had a bad system image deployed and could cause a lot of issues.

 

The laptop started Windows 8 and went through the typical prompt to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.

 

Not a surprise.

There are tons of users having driver crashes with Windows 10 after the upgrades due to the programs and drivers being used during the upgrade are incompatible, or had gotten corrupt after the upgrade.

As most have recommended, you should backup all of your files, go to Google, and type in, Windows 10 Media Creation tool.

There will be a link from the Microsoft website to download the tool.

After the tool is install, make sure you download the 64 bit architecture.

You will either need to copy the install files to a USB, or burn the ISO to a DVD.

You will need to make sure you know which edition of Windows you are using "Home or pro".

You will need to perform a clean install of Windows 10.

If you haven't done a clean install before, I can give you instructions on how to do so

 

Hi bane23,

The below link goes with what lmaneke suggested. I think most of what you'll need for a clean install should be on that link.
Windows 10 - Clean Install

If you're against doing a clean install at this time, perhaps trying a repair install might help.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

 

Okay, I just wanted to come back with an update. It's been about 33 hours since I've done a clean install on my computer, and everything seems great-- so far.

The network protocol problem still exists though, even after successfully entering "netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt" into admin CMD, so I imagine it's something with the router/cables? I actually can't get the wired connection to work anymore with my previous work-around, so I think I'll go talk to tech support and that about wraps up all the issues that come to mind.


Thank you for all the help!