Cortana Issues

I upgraded my Surface Pro to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. Ever since then I have had issues with Cortana. I seem to solve them and then Microsoft releases another forced update and it gets all flaky again. Right now, I can say "Hey, Cortana" and it will hear me and show "listening" with all the letters flying by. But it can't hear my request and then tells me something is wrong. No kidding. Since I still have the ISO of Windows 8.1 on here there are no system restore points. That is what I would do first. Strangely, I have a Dell two in one that came with Windows 10 and I had to fight to get Cortana to work on there too but now it seems stable. I would surely appreciate any tips or fixes. Even if they're only temporary and have to be done over and over. I doubt I can be the only person having this problem. Thanks in advance.

dalchina said:

Hi, other than the speech recognition problem, does Cortana respond properly to things you type?

Note that System Restore is off by default in Win 10. Strange. If you want to use it, turn it on. Personally I also have a daily scheduled task to run a script to create a restore point as these are typically not now created for Windows updates.

The best- and recommended way to prevent disaster, save time and preserve your PC, data and your sanity is to use disk imaging routinely - e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + its boot medium + external storage for image backups.

Thanks for the response. I did discover system restore was turned off and turned it on. But there is no point in making a restore point when it isn't working right. I was messing around with the sound settings and disabled the device's microphone. Big mistake. I thought I could easily just enable it again but I really have no idea how now. It's gone from the control panel. All I have is sound through the jack. I probably shouldn't be trying to fix this on my own but none of the fixes I've tried from googling this problem have worked. And it strange that Cortana could hear "Hey Cortana" but nothing else. Before I disabled it the microphone was working properly and it said the driver was up to date. So now if someone could tell me where I enable the device's microphone again that would be helpful at this point. Thanks again.

To kstuebing,
Instead of trying this and that and perhaps risking further damage to the system, I would suggest that you do a Repair Install.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

If you find the tutorial a bit complex, have a look at the method I myself use.........................

Use the Tech Bench link to download your edition of Windows 10. Make sure you also select the same language and bit version your computer is now using.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...brrWLRbagYCa0w

scroll down to Select Edition > click the pointer at the right and select your edition of Windows 10 > click Confirm.
Click the pointer and select Language > make sure you pick the same language the computer is now running > click Confirm
Select the bit version, 32 or 64-bit. Make sure you select the same bit version as the computer is now running.
At the bottom, click the pointer next to Save > click Save As > navigate to a folder of your choice > click the chosen folder > click Save
The iso will start downloading to your chosen folder.
When it is done, go to that folder > open the folder > right click at the iso file > click Mount > click Setup.exe
Installation will begin.
It will allow you to keep you files, settings and apps.
No product key is required.
Activation will be automatic.

davidhk said:

To kstuebing,
Instead of trying this and that and perhaps risking further damage to the system, I would suggest that you do a Repair Install.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

If you find the tutorial a bit complex, have a look at the method I myself use.........................

Use the Tech Bench link to download your edition of Windows 10. Make sure you also select the same language and bit version your computer is now using.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...brrWLRbagYCa0w

scroll down to Select Edition > click the pointer at the right and select your edition of Windows 10 > click Confirm.
Click the pointer and select Language > make sure you pick the same language the computer is now running > click Confirm
Select the bit version, 32 or 64-bit. Make sure you select the same bit version as the computer is now running.
At the bottom, click the pointer next to Save > click Save As > navigate to a folder of your choice > click the chosen folder > click Save
The iso will start downloading to your chosen folder.
When it is done, go to that folder > open the folder > right click at the iso file > click Mount > click Setup.exe
Installation will begin.
It will allow you to keep you files, settings and apps.
No product key is required.
Activation will be automatic.

Thanks for the info!! Sounds like exactly what I need. Can I put it on a jump drive? Or does that create problems. The SSD on the Surface is not huge and I've already got the old version of Windows 8.1 on there so I can roll back. I've been tempted. :) And will I have to reinstall all the updates that have occurred since I upgraded? I also have a data cap with my ISP. Thanks again.

kstuebing said:

Thanks for the info!! Sounds like exactly what I need. Can I put it on a jump drive? Or does that create problems. The SSD on the Surface is not huge and I've already got the old version of Windows 8.1 on there so I can roll back. I've been tempted. :) And will I have to reinstall all the updates that have occurred since I upgraded? I also have a data cap with my ISP. Thanks again.

RE : Can I put it on a jump drive?
If you want to.
My method does not require that step.
Suggest you do as I posted. If installation is successful and activated, and if Cortana is back in business, you can then burn the iso to a jump drive, then delete the iso file to save disk space.

davidhk said:

To kstuebing,
Instead of trying this and that and perhaps risking further damage to the system, I would suggest that you do a Repair Install.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

If you find the tutorial a bit complex, have a look at the method I myself use.........................

Use the Tech Bench link to download your edition of Windows 10. Make sure you also select the same language and bit version your computer is now using.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...brrWLRbagYCa0w

scroll down to Select Edition > click the pointer at the right and select your edition of Windows 10 > click Confirm.
Click the pointer and select Language > make sure you pick the same language the computer is now running > click Confirm
Select the bit version, 32 or 64-bit. Make sure you select the same bit version as the computer is now running.
At the bottom, click the pointer next to Save > click Save As > navigate to a folder of your choice > click the chosen folder > click Save
The iso will start downloading to your chosen folder.
When it is done, go to that folder > open the folder > right click at the iso file > click Mount > click Setup.exe
Installation will begin.
It will allow you to keep you files, settings and apps.
No product key is required.
Activation will be automatic.

I think this fix is major too for one program. I did get the driver back for the on board microphone by rolling the audio driver back and then updating it again as there was an update for it. I can live without Cortana. It just bothers me that it doesn't work. It should work. Everything that is part of the OS should work correctly.

dalchina said:

I'd agree..
Have you tried this yet as my post above?

Could I suggest you try speech recognition, but not with Cortana, with, say, something simple like Wordpad. Separate the issues. Yours isn't a typical 'Cortana is broken' problem along with either/or the start menu and taskbar icons or apps not responding (for which an in-place repair would be appropriate)

You can try turning off enhancements, which Cortana sometimes reports it doesn't like:

I did do the speech recognition set up. It worked with Notepad. I've got Cortana semi working. She will open programs. But if I say "Can you hear me?"...nada. Thinking and then a list of things I can do. Also this is really weird. I have no notebook. It keeps telling me to connect to the internet. I just wish there was a Cortana repair program. I did try the sound enhancement thing too. I found that one googling this. Thanks for all your help, everyone. I'm stymied right now.