Windows 10 Issues with Cortana, Sync, notifications and mousepad :(

cfiiman · 02 Apr 2016

Hey everyone!

I just purchased a new Toshiba i7 laptop after my 7 year old windows 7 Toshiba crashed and burned. For the first few days everything seemed bug free but lately (about 2 weeks in with this) my machine has developed some bugs. Cortana works 50% of time it seems and hardly ever answers the first time without shutting off half way through. Second my notifications have stopped coming through on my mail, at least consistently, sometimes I'll get one here or there, sometimes not. And the mail program no longer seems to sync the way it did, again sometimes it seems too but a lot of the time it will not sync and I have to do it manually. Third the three finger swipe has just stopped working completely on my mousepad. I use to get it to work by uninstalling the driver then reinstalling but now that doesn't even work for some reason. I've installed some apps and programs but don't know how to see why this is happening. After doing a search for Cortana issues I saw a lot but they were pretty old, is no one having issues with her anymore but me? Any advice on how to fix these issues? Thanks!

dalchina · 03 Apr 2016

Hi, some very simple checks..
1. If you launch Cortana using Windows key + S, how many icons do you see down the left side? Normally I'd expect 6 if all is set up as it should be.
2. Is Location on (tile bright) if you look in the Action Centre fly-in?
3. Go to Settings, Privacy, General.
Hopefully you don't see 'Some settings are managed by your organisation' in red.
4. If you do a clean boot, do you still see these problems?
Clean Boot - Perform in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts - Windows 10 Forums

Which mail program are you using? I gave up on MS's mail offerings after their 'now you have a mail program, now you don't' approach from Vista thru Win 7 to Win 8 and use Thunderbird.. independent and much more portable from Windows installation to installation.

I don't find Cortana useful personally, but check to see it's ok from time to time. Normally as you'll have seen Cortana either works or doesn't.. can be affected by changes in Privacy, language and some odd bug that affects some people which is typically related to other problems with the start menu and taskbar issues.

cfiiman · 03 Apr 2016

dalchina said:

Hi, some very simple checks..
1. If you launch Cortana using Windows key + S, how many icons do you see down the left side? Normally I'd expect 6 if all is set up as it should be.
2. Is Location on (tile bright) if you look in the Action Centre fly-in?
3. Go to Settings, Privacy, General.
Hopefully you don't see 'Some settings are managed by your organisation' in red.
4. If you do a clean boot, do you still see these problems?
Clean Boot - Perform in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts - Windows 10 Forums

Which mail program are you using? I gave up on MS's mail offerings after their 'now you have a mail program, now you don't' approach from Vista thru Win 7 to Win 8 and use Thunderbird.. independent and much more portable from Windows installation to installation.

I don't find Cortana useful personally, but check to see it's ok from time to time. Normally as you'll have seen Cortana either works or doesn't.. can be affected by changes in Privacy, language and some odd bug that affects some people which is typically related to other problems with the start menu and taskbar issues.

Hi thanks for the reply. To answer your questions:

1. I see the 6 icons
2. Yes the location tile is highlighted in action center
3. Didn't see any message like that
4. Will do this clean boot when I get a chance, but won't loading only basic stuff/drivers allow the functions I am missing to possibly not work anyway? Just not sure how I would see what is working if that happens?

I'm using the windows mail and calendar app that was on the computer. None of these issues are really that big of a deal I guess it would just be nice if the computer worked right since it is brand new. I really liked the action center notifications and now it is just buggy the same with Cortana. All the other functions of the mousepad work except the 3 finger swipe that toggles me between programs and desktop which was a nice feature. Again not a huge deal but would like it to work obviously. I'm thinking of doing a "reset" and selecting the "delete all files" option and put a new install of windows 10 on it and then see what happens, would this be a good idea? I don't have hardly anything on the computer at this point so except for having to reinstall programs it wouldn't be that big of a deal. No software came with this computer so I'm assuming there is a version of windows 10 somewhere on a partition on the hard drive, which is ok I guess but I miss the days of having a real disk and product key honestly.

dalchina · 03 Apr 2016

4. Will do this clean boot when I get a chance, but won't loading only basic stuff/drivers allow the functions I am missing to possibly not work anyway? Just not sure how I would see what is working if that happens?

No, as what is disabled is stuff that's been added that might conflict.

You can also try creating a new user for test purposes. If you don't have the problems with a new user, then sthg in your user profile is corrupt, and trying to repair Windows won't fix it. (It's worth doing this as it's relatively easy and quick and you can just delete the user if not needed)

If you conclude it's worth trying to repair Windows, then
a. from an elevated command prompt run
chkdsk C: /F
b. if clear or fixed, then
sfc /scannow
This will take a while
c. if that's clear the next stage I would use would be an in-place upgrade repair install
(This tutorial also answers your question about having a Win 10 bootable medium)
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

You will probably have a recovery partition on your PC - but it will restore your PC to exactly how it was when yuo bought it, trialware and everything, and lose all your data. (Not to be confused with the smaller Recovery partition which is part of Windows, used e.g. for Troubleshooting, automatic repair and so on).

(I've not been so impressed with Action centre notifications as either they don't lead to more detail or disappear after I've looked if I can get more detail).

cfiiman · 03 Apr 2016

dalchina said:

4. Will do this clean boot when I get a chance, but won't loading only basic stuff/drivers allow the functions I am missing to possibly not work anyway? Just not sure how I would see what is working if that happens?

No, as what is disabled is stuff that's been added that might conflict.

You can also try creating a new user for test purposes. If you don't have the problems with a new user, then sthg in your user profile is corrupt, and trying to repair Windows won't fix it. (It's worth doing this as it's relatively easy and quick and you can just delete the user if not needed)

If you conclude it's worth trying to repair Windows, then
a. from an elevated command prompt run
chkdsk C: /F
b. if clear or fixed, then
sfc /scannow
This will take a while
c. if that's clear the next stage I would use would be an in-place upgrade repair install
(This tutorial also answers your question about having a Win 10 bootable medium)
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

You will probably have a recovery partition on your PC - but it will restore your PC to exactly how it was when yuo bought it, trialware and everything, and lose all your data. (Not to be confused with the smaller Recovery partition which is part of Windows, used e.g. for Troubleshooting, automatic repair and so on).

(I've not been so impressed with Action centre notifications as either they don't lead to more detail or disappear after I've looked if I can get more detail).

Wow thanks, just figured out something because of your help, hopefully this will add some light! So I did what you said and created a new account just to test. As soon as the new account was done my three finger swipe worked perfectly! Switch back to the other account, not working, switch back to new one, works fine! So this must definitely be an account issue then right? Other info, I decided to start Cortana in the new account, and of course Microsoft makes me choose a login, etc. so I do it and as soon as she comes onto the scene my three finger swipe is gone again. With that said after I open another window or something it comes back in the new account so I know Cortana/Microsoft account has something to do with my glitches. I haven't been able to test the mail program and notifications in the new account yet but I suspect it will work if the three finger swipe is any indication. Question is now, what happened inside my regular account, how/can I fix it, and how do I keep it from happening again? Thanks SO MUCH for all your help, I'm finally getting to the root I think of what is driving me crazy.

dalchina · 03 Apr 2016

Hi, great you've made progress, however I can't suggest a fix for your account corruption, assuming it is that.

Now one more step. It may be that in your new user account your startups aren't the same as in your original.
So please try a clean boot in your original account to see what effect that has, if any.

However, what seems strange is that setting up your live id has an effect, and that seems the key, rather than suspecting account corruption.

I've just checked my 3 finger swipe - seems ok- I never use it. I'm using a live id login, but have no other devices other than my old laptop. Wondering if it's sthg to do with that - other devices.

Try disabling 'sync your settings' (Settings, Accounts)

Problem is with account corruption there are so many registry entries and also files specific to an account that unless it's sthg simple like uninstalling sthg and reinstalling it there's no easy fix. Likewise - the cause.. probably the only way is to maintain a log of changes, use system restore (and set up a scheduled task to create a daily restore point) and maintain disk images (e.g. Macrium Reflect free + external storage + boot medium), regularly and appropriately updated. That's what I do, so I have a chance of
a. Finding sthg broken
b. Restoring my PC prior to when it was broken
c. Repeating what I did from my simple log file of changes.

Unfortunately, if the problem's origin was a long time back, and I'm unaware of the problem, that's still difficult.

cfiiman · 03 Apr 2016

Another thing I forgot to mention (I'm sure it is related to the Cortana issues somehow) is my calendar in the "mail and calendar" app crashes if I try to click on an already made appointment to get info on it. Does it every time, just crashes to the desktop. If I click on the day I can add something new or whatever, but can not edit one already on there without the crash. Can anyone tell me if people are having a lot of issues with Cortana as well or is it just me?