Taskbar and some software frozen but can right click on W10 pro

mystvearn · 15 Dec 2017

Hi

I am using an Asus U46SV with 512 gb SSD (crucial-since 2013), 8 gb ram. It came with W7 enterprise and now on W10 pro. Just few days ago I noticed that the taskbar froze. Pressing the window button (keyboard) does not help. Left click on the windows button or the dropbox and otiher icons near the clock is not working. The status (dropbox update/whatsapp) has froze though the clock is still working. Whatsapp launches but freezes. If I right click on dropbox for example, I get a menu, but the menu won't disappear. I am able to manually close it via the right click task manager and end process there.

Windows+E still works and I can browse files and thats about it. Is my SSD dieing? I am making this thread on the laptop, so some of it is working. Desktop icons and icons in the taskbar can be left clicked.

Any ideas why my laptop is freezing in some places?

EdTittel · 15 Dec 2017

Freezing is something that's hard to diagnose, and may result from a variety of different causes. Thus, for example, searching TenForums.com for "Windows 10 freezes" produces 278 hits. The thread named "Windows 10 freezes randomly" has 87 pages, to give you an idea of how common and vexing a symptom this can be. You'll want to do some reading among these threads to get a handle on what might be causing your symptoms.

If you want to check your SSD you can do so, but that may be unrelated to your freezing problem. First, you'll want to run chkdsk c: /r (assuming your SSD is the default boot/system drive, usually labeled C: ). This can take a long time to complete (10s of hours) if it finds lots of errors, so fire this off before you go to bed one night and see what's up in the morning. You should also check the drive's SMART data, which you can do using Crucial's Storage Executive software, a free download available from the company's support pages. Let us know if the health check turns up anything odd or out of the ordinary, and other forum members (myself included) can chime in to help you figure things out.
HTH,
--Ed--

spunk · 15 Dec 2017

If just the Taskbar is freezing but you can still navigate Windows, then it is not the standard Freezing issue.
Try a Clean Boot. If this works then add one Startup item or Service at a time and reboot each time. When the taskbar starts freezing, you will know what program or service is causing the problem.
You c an also Enable the Hidden Built in Administrator profile. Log out as you, and login as the Admin. Does the same behavior happen? If so, your User profile may be corrupted.

zbook · 15 Dec 2017

1) open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
2) sfc /scannow
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
4) chkdsk /scan
5) net user test /add
6) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread
7) msconfig (in the pop up system configuration > move the dot from normal startup to selective startup > uncheck load startup items > click service tab > in left lower corner check hide all Microsoft services > in the lower right side click disable all > click apply or ok > do not reboot)
8) taskmgr (in the pop up task manager > click on the start up tab > click on status so that the column sorts with enable rising to the top > right click on each row with enable and change to disable)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/29876.how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-10.aspx
9) shutdown /r (you will reboot the computer so that it is in clean boot)
10) sign on with the new user named test
11) evaluate the task bar with the new user and in clean boot > report the results into the thread
12) If the task bar works normally change to prior user and evaluate the task bar again > report the results into the thread
13) change clean boot > normal boot and sign on with the new user test > evaluate the task bar > post the results into the thead

mystvearn · 21 Dec 2017

zbook said:

1) open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
2) sfc /scannow
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
4) chkdsk /scan
5) net user test /add
6) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread
7) msconfig (in the pop up system configuration > move the dot from normal startup to selective startup > uncheck load startup items > click service tab > in left lower corner check hide all Microsoft services > in the lower right side click disable all > click apply or ok > do not reboot)
8) taskmgr (in the pop up task manager > click on the start up tab > click on status so that the column sorts with enable rising to the top > right click on each row with enable and change to disable)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/29876.how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-10.aspx
9) shutdown /r (you will reboot the computer so that it is in clean boot)
10) sign on with the new user named test
11) evaluate the task bar with the new user and in clean boot > report the results into the thread
12) If the task bar works normally change to prior user and evaluate the task bar again > report the results into the thread
13) change clean boot > normal boot and sign on with the new user test > evaluate the task bar > post the results into the thead

Thanks all for the reply. This solution work, though not all of it. Options 2, 4, 5 did not work. The checkdisk only worked after restart. There was a windows update while restarting as well. Thanks again.

zbook · 22 Dec 2017

For all tests / steps please post images into the thread.
If there are any problems posting images please use one drive or drop box share links.

Use the information in this link to find the chkdsk report and post the results into the thread:
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
1) sfc /scannow
2) dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
4) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

How many user options are there now?
What happened with the net user test /add ?