Windows 10: Start/Notification/Cortana/Search Stop Working

Hi All,
I've got a system here which is acting up and I'm looking for ideas of how to resolve. Specs are:

Windows 10 Home (upgraded from W8.1)
i7-3632 8GB RAM 64bit
Inspiron 17R5720 laptop

Here's the problem: Everything works fine upon boot, but then, something happens over time, and things stop working.

Start left-click not working/Start right-click works
Notification left-click not working/Notification right-click menu shows, but open action center doesn't work
Quick Launch opens and works
All icons pinned to the taskbar work including File Explorer
Cortana and search not working - can't type in box
Speaker icon left-click does not work, right-click does

This is all intermittent, and resolved with a reboot.

Something sets it off to stop working - perhaps the screensaver/lockscreen?

Fast Startup is off, hybernate off as well.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated. TIA.

:)

 

Real time notification not working on Windows 10

I know what you mean, Samarth, and I find myself in the same boat. My Twitter notifications just stopped coming on Friday (today is Sunday here). It’s switched on, the app itself is fine, but as of Friday, they no longer appear in the notifications’ area.
Other things have just ceased working as well—it’s as though 10 is on its best behaviour for the first day, then begins showing its true colours.

Cortana stopped working on day two.

Notifications stopped working on day five.

Windows 10 reports that I am offline on day six, hence Cortana and other programs ceased to work (though clearly I am online, because otherwise how would I be replying to you?).

Search bar stopped working on day seven.

What else will Windows forget next?

 

Cortana broke and I can't get her back

• Right-Click Start
• click on Command Prompt (Admin)
• at the cursor type in sfc /scannow

This reinstated Cortana for me because when I turned it off and wanted to stop the running task by renaming it, Windows Search stopped working. The Systems File Checker found the file, renamed it and poof, Search started working but apparently it is a function
of Cortana so yeah, confusing and uses a lot of memory.

The Windows Search Service should be renamed Windows Search Service (Cortana) so you know that by messing with Cortana may mess up your Windows Search function.

Good luck.

 

Hi, I'll assume all is sound e.g. chkdsk, SFC show no problems.

Have you tried a clean boot to see if the symptoms recur?
And if so, Safe Mode?

I.e. start to identify potential conflicts.

 

Yes, SFC is all clear. HDD health is good (per Passmark), although I have not run CHKDSK on it. Have not tried the clean boot approach. May give that a try next. Since I have seen this on a couple computers, I thought perhaps it was a known bug of which I was unaware. Thanks!

 

. maybe one is 'known' - somewhere- and I'm sure you've seen a lot of similar-ish posts.. what puzzles me here is it's not a 'hard' fault.
"Everything works fine upon boot, but then, something happens over time, and things stop working."

Found some parallel symptoms (works after restart)
start menu/task bar/sound stops working [Solved] - windows 10 - Windows 10
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start/taskbar-start-menu-and-built-in-apps-randomly-stop/06ee5586-5363-4cc6-a3c4-ff3eb7ea1227
(received standard responses, no solution)

End of the day you may just as well go for it and try a repair upgrade install - you lose nothing but time, and system restore is turned off, any customised system icons lost, and you have to redo 2 or 3 Windows updates...

It would be good to know WHY the start menu, taskbar, Cortana... seem so vulnerable.. threads don't seem to offer a technical solution as you know... hmmm.. maybe this only happens on upgrades, for example...?

 

Hi, simrick.

Looks like there are a number of driver updates possible for this laptop at Dell support - has that been gone through?
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...ivers/advanced (note dropdown to "change OS")

 

Hi.
I agree - would be good to know WHY this is happening...can't seem to find a definitive answer on that. I know this has been a problem in the past (since August last year), and the Powershell re-register approach doesn't work anymore (just breaks everything).

I have since done a (partial) clean boot, and let him run the computer for a day and a half, including reboots, and it appears that the problem has not resurfaced (yet!), so next on the list is slowly adding everything back in to try and identify the culprit. Unfortunately, he leaves now for a couple of weeks, and I won't be able to further troubleshoot until he returns.

But I will be sure and post here if we come up with a solution! And if not, an in-place repair install is my only other solution, because we've done everything else. Thanks.

 

Hi. Yes, oh my gosh, I have tried that, and then also found more updates going through Device Manager>Update Drivers. That was my first thought. Then I started removing all bloatware. Then I started removing all unnecessary software. I even removed "necessary software" to see if that helped (McAfee>Defender)....no difference.

The clean boot (well, mostly clean boot), has been showing some hope - 1-1/2 days without incident. Unfortunately, as I mention in the above post, I have to sit it out on the sidelines now for a couple of weeks. So, will be reporting back then.

I have read that some shells from older programs don't play nice with W10, and I am thinking this might be a clue.

Thanks.

 

Hi, if you still have the same problem after a clean boot, you have two further basic options:
1. Safe Mode (which eliminates most extraneous drivers)
2. In normal mode (and clean boot if you prefer), try Shellexview (free); hide all MS extensions, then disable the rest and check for symptoms.

That's all about identifying conflicts.
If it's an OS or some registry problem, an in-place upgrade repair install may help.

If you can't identify a conflict and that doesn't help, and you have no disk image prior to the problem starting (hint- everyone should use 3rd party disk imaging routinely.. it saves so much time, frustration, preserves your system and your peace of mind whilst providing a full backup and fast recovery without tech assistance.. it's a clean install.

 

Thanks dalchina. Shellexview sounds like a plan.
Wonder if you still have the links to the threads referenced in your post above? They both just lead to Tomshardware... and I've read that the powershell app re-register now just borks everything (whereas before it used to resolve). Thanks very much!

 

I'm not recommending those approaches.. I merely cited them as examples of others whose similar problems were not resolved.. FYI only.
As far as I know the Powershell commands remain broken.. until someone's brave enough to try after an MS update...*really

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...4-ff3eb7ea1227


- Odd, I just cut 'n pasted that from the post.

Do work thru the steps in sequence, don't try all at once, just logically in the hope of identifying a conflict.

 

Okay so, the same problems started happening on my main rig. Clean boot didn't resolve it, so I opted for a repair install by doing an in-place upgrade. Done. Repair Install fixed everything.

 

Yep.. good..sad there's only a long-winded solution.. albeit it's a lot faster with SSD *Biggrin

 

Yeah, the SSD made it pretty painless. *Smile