Windows start menu does not open

I am experiencing issue with Windows 10, that windows menu does not open on windows click nor on the Win key. Unlike of the older similar thread however, everything else works, including right-mouse button, pinned applications, etc - only start menu does not open. On first attempt it stays highlighted as clicked, but does not open and on further attempts it does not react at all. Now some points:

• System is Asus CH7 board, Ryzen 2700x and Asus AMD RX-580. The only other connected peripheral is USB Hub and Steinberg UR22 USB soundcard
• Before, I had Gigabyte Gaming 7 board and Gigabyte Gaming RX580 video card having the same issue
• Windows explorer restart solves it
• Killing "Windows Shell Experience Host" process solves it as well (from 99%)
• Happens randomly, but more likely after sleep or longer inactivity, even without sleep - not when actively working with the PC
• I went through the other forum with "Start menu does not work", tried the obvious like sfc scan, dism, reinstall MS Store apps via the Get-AppXPackage command, tried to modify the WPnUserService registry value to 4, also I have tried to mess with the Cortana search.
• I have also tried to reinstall Windows several times and the issue is always showing up quite soon after install, even before most of apps I use are installed.
• Also, I have 2 users registered on the PC, mine and my wife and the issue affects both. Also any new user and no matter if local user or Microsoft account.
• All drivers and patches are and were actual, now I have older Radeon drivers which are included with the most recent Asus Chipset drivers (18.50) because ACDSee does not work with newer drivers, but the start menu issue is still the same.

I have suspicion on the AMD drivers themselves, but doubt it as I would not be alone if so and i have not seen the same issues over the internet - The start menu does not work quite often, however usually, there are different symptoms, like right mouse button not working as well, Windows explorer restart not working, etc.

Also, what I experience is, that sometimes when I launch settings, I get blue window with the wheel, but that's it - it stays so and does not show the content. But when I close it and launch again, it works. (see attached). This is also why I have suspicion to the display drivers - besides of it it feels like it has difficulties to display the menu.

And also, the "Shell Experience Host" is sometimes quite large in memory and yes, I did all the tricks to troubleshoot this one, like to switch off the wallpaper etc, but no difference.

Please excuse longer text augmented with my nasty English, but I was trying to describe the issue and steps taken.

Josef.

Hello Dalchina,

At first, thank you for your welcome and for the answer. Secondly, sorry for later reply, I was trying to repeat the issue in varions conditions. unfortunately, it happens randomly.

Now to your questions:

• Windows version is 1809 (OS Build 17763.379), Windows 10 Pro. Sorry for this one - thought the version question will be covered by saying that I am on the actual patches.
• Not sure what do you exactly mean by "clean boot" (how much clean), however I was not able to repeat the issue on Safe boot and also not on "Diagnostic" boot. - Looks OK, however given the randomness of the issue, it's not 100% statement - no negative testing is possible.
• The issue however happened in "slightly cleaner" boot - exactly with all non-Microsoft services disabled and with all startup applications disabled (In msconfig/services -> Hide MS services, then disable all and in Task mgr/Startup disable everything) In this configuration, the issue happened.

What do you mean by

do you only see this happen when the start menu stops responding, or at other times too?

What I mean was, that if the issue happens - Start menu does not open - I do not have to restart it nor restart Windows Explorer, but if I kill "Windows Shell Experience Host" process, the Start menu works again - until it gets frozen again. It looks like the "Windows Shell Experience host" process gets somehow unstable, also it takes more RAM then usual - if the Start menu gets into non-responding state.

After normal boot, the resource usage looks quite reasonable, usually few process, sometimes a bit more taken by Antimalware scan (I use Defender) or iCloud process, etc. Pls find attached.

As a follow-up, I will try:

• Run the computer in "Diagnostic" startup and try to repeat the issue
• Run the computer with only single user logged

Anyway, strange is, that this issue is appearing always very soon after clear windows reinstall, (like next day) still with quite minimal set of applications. Also, it is happening on second motherboard+GPU set, although both were the same platform.

Thank a lot,
Josef

It looks like the issues described above were caused by GPU. After removing Asus Radeon RX 580 and replacing it by Nvidia NVS-295, none of the issues appeared anymore.
- No start menu failing to open
- Windows Modern UI apps are not stucked on the initial icon-logo
- ACDsee works well and does not fail on startup.

I tried to go back to Radeon RX 580 and the issues did appear again. Then, I installed Nvidia GTX-1060 and all is OK since then.

Important to note, that I had 2 different motherboards and 2 different AMD GPUs and the same issue appeared on Gigabyte X470 Gaming 7 with Gigabyte RX-580 and on Asus CH7 with Gigabyte RX-580 as well as with Asus RX-580.
Conclusion is, that this is caused by the AMD drivers (multiple versions). I have sold the AMD GPU disclosing the issues, however I do not expect the same issue on different PC. Also, I did try to return the GPU to vendor and they did not accept, as they could not repeat the issue.

So far this is the conclusion, unless anyone brings more light into this...