Strange Windows 10 behavior

[FAHEYGF87]

So this has been going on for about 6 months now. When I leave work at the end of the day, I lock my computer because automatic backups happen during the early hours of the morning (I restart weekly). When I unlock it when I get into the office in the morning, I'm often greeted with something like the attached picture. All my icon are scrambled, task bar is unresponsive. The only fix I've found so far is control shift escape, and restarting the Windows Explorer, this will normalize everything and it will work totally fine until the next time I unlock the screen at some random point in the future(it doesn't do it every time).

 

Does anybody have any idea what is going on here?

 

Specs:

Windows 10 Pro 20H2

Ryzen 5 2600X

16GB Crucial 3200

Crucial P1 500gb

RX570

[1518]

Have you tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic. Also try using the inbuilt cpu graphics. 

[BiotechBen]

16 minutes ago, aeliasov9 said:

Have you tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic. Also try using the inbuilt cpu graphics. 

2600x doesn't have onboard graphics. Only those with G have integrated graphics.

[Nathanpete]

If you can get the preferred outcome by restarting explorer.exe, how about setting up just that as scheduled task. I honestly forget how to navigate the task scheduler in Windows, because I haven't used it in a long time, but I remember you can make one of the triggers to be "when a user logs in" and you can make one of the tasks either be restart explorer; or maybe shutdown explorer, then start explorer, which gets the same result, just with one extra line of code. 

 

But maybe you solution only works by manually doing it in task manager. I would try out my solution. Come back the next day, and if it all seems good then stick with this system. If it doesn't, you can go back into task scheduler and remove the task, and if that happens then I am sorry for wasting your time.

 

BTW This solution has the side effect that it can make the amount of time it takes from pressing enter after entering your passcode to getting to the desktop MUCH LONGER. 

[FAHEYGF87]

22 hours ago, aeliasov9 said:

Have you tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic. Also try using the inbuilt cpu graphics. 

Windows Memory Diagnostic didn't find any errors.

 

22 hours ago, Nathanpete said:

If you can get the preferred outcome by restarting explorer.exe, how about setting up just that as scheduled task. I honestly forget how to navigate the task scheduler in Windows, because I haven't used it in a long time, but I remember you can make one of the triggers to be "when a user logs in" and you can make one of the tasks either be restart explorer; or maybe shutdown explorer, then start explorer, which gets the same result, just with one extra line of code. 

 

But maybe you solution only works by manually doing it in task manager. I would try out my solution. Come back the next day, and if it all seems good then stick with this system. If it doesn't, you can go back into task scheduler and remove the task, and if that happens then I am sorry for wasting your time.

 

BTW This solution has the side effect that it can make the amount of time it takes from pressing enter after entering your passcode to getting to the desktop MUCH LONGER. 

Interesting solution, I will look into it.

 

22 hours ago, Nathanpete said:

If you can get the preferred outcome by restarting explorer.exe, how about setting up just that as scheduled task. I honestly forget how to navigate the task scheduler in Windows, because I haven't used it in a long time, but I remember you can make one of the triggers to be "when a user logs in" and you can make one of the tasks either be restart explorer; or maybe shutdown explorer, then start explorer, which gets the same result, just with one extra line of code. 

 

But maybe you solution only works by manually doing it in task manager. I would try out my solution. Come back the next day, and if it all seems good then stick with this system. If it doesn't, you can go back into task scheduler and remove the task, and if that happens then I am sorry for wasting your time.

 

BTW This solution has the side effect that it can make the amount of time it takes from pressing enter after entering your passcode to getting to the desktop MUCH LONGER. 

Alright, this is where I get lost. On the drop down for Action: the options are "Start a program", "Send email", "Display message". I'm assuming I need to Start a program, then add an argument? 

[Nathanpete]

2 minutes ago, FAHEYGF87 said:

Alright, this is where I get lost. On the drop down for Action: the options are "Start a program", "Send email", "Display message". I'm assuming I need to Start a program, then add an argument? 

Well good news, because I honestly don't think I remember that much about task scheduler.

I have found a way simpler to implement solution, and all it requires you to do is add a batch file to your desktop that does the job of restarting explorer. Just a double click rather than automatic. But I'm sure that you will be glad for the upgrade, right? 

 

Anyway, here it is: https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=faq-Windows-Console&faq=24

So what you need to do is open up notepad, type the lines provided, then save the file to your desktop, replacing the .txt extension with .bat for batch file. A batch file includes lines of CMD code, and when executed does all of those commands, in order, as quickly as possible, usually without even opening a window. 

[FAHEYGF87]

3 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Well good news, because I honestly don't think I remember that much about task scheduler.

I have found a way simpler to implement solution, and all it requires you to do is add a batch file to your desktop that does the job of restarting explorer. Just a double click rather than automatic. But I'm sure that you will be glad for the upgrade, right? 

 

Anyway, here it is: https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=faq-Windows-Console&faq=24

So what you need to do is open up notepad, type the lines provided, then save the file to your desktop, replacing the .txt extension with .bat for batch file. A batch file includes lines of CMD code, and when executed does all of those commands, in order, as quickly as possible, usually without even opening a window. 

I do appreciate that, however, i don't think that'll work. When this happens, the entire desktop is unresponsive, so no double clicking.

[Nathanpete]

Just now, FAHEYGF87 said:

I do appreciate that, however, i don't think that'll work. When this happens, the entire desktop is unresponsive, so no double clicking.

Ok, well go back to task scheduler and see if you can make it start a program, and if it recognizes a .bat file as a loadable program. Because in reality, a .bat file is pretty much an executable for the very early days of microsoft. 

[FAHEYGF87]

31 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Ok, well go back to task scheduler and see if you can make it start a program, and if it recognizes a .bat file as a loadable program. Because in reality, a .bat file is pretty much an executable for the very early days of microsoft. 

So while this doesn't make a ton of sense to me, I'm going to try it out and see if it sticks.

 

In my limited understanding, this should end explorer.exe, and Windows should force it to restart. However, when I run this task, it just pops up a new explorer window to my documents (I'm assuming that's a windows default). 

 

While this doesn't get me exactly what I was looking for, I think it might fix the my issue of Explorer being, sort of, stuck.

 

Fingers and toes crossed.

[Nathanpete]

5 minutes ago, FAHEYGF87 said:

So while this doesn't make a ton of sense to me, I'm going to try it out and see if it sticks.

 

In my limited understanding, this should end explorer.exe, and Windows should force it to restart. However, when I run this task, it just pops up a new explorer window to my documents (I'm assuming that's a windows default). 

 

While this doesn't get me exactly what I was looking for, I think it might fix the my issue of Explorer being, sort of, stuck.

 

Fingers and toes crossed.

Well if you were to kill explorer.exe and then request to open a folder window using the Run window, then it would take a second to reboot your desktop and taskbar, then open up to documents, so yeah at least you know it is doing the second half right, but that was also the easy half. 

 

Yeah I really don't know what to do now because I am a hardware expert, attempting to do my best to help a forum user out with their windows question, and I am out of luck for your question. Sorry. Maybe you can do your own reading up on the task scheduler to answer your question. I wish I could do more, but this is not my field of study. 

 

But if you do get task scheduler to do it the right way, you can manually edit the text that appears in the Details column to say something like "Restarts Windows Explorer" so that you don't forget what is in when for some reason you have to go back to the task scheduler. 

[SpikeSpiegel]

8 hours ago, FAHEYGF87 said:

Windows Memory Diagnostic didn't find any errors.

Download and use MemTest86 and see if there's any issues.  Also have you tried repairing the OS?  

[FAHEYGF87]

14 minutes ago, CalintzJerevinan said:

Download and use MemTest86 and see if there's any issues.  Also have you tried repairing the OS?  

How would one "repair the OS"?

[SpikeSpiegel]

15 minutes ago, FAHEYGF87 said:

How would one "repair the OS"?

How To Repair and Restore Windows 10

1. Click Startup Repair.
2. Click System Restore.
3. Select your username.
4. Type "cmd" into the main search box.
5. Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
6. Type sfc /scannow at command prompt and hit Enter.
7. Click on the download link at the bottom of your screen.
8. Click Accept.

Or try this

 

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3080839/your-step-by-step-guide-to-repairing-windows-10.html

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Windows

[FAHEYGF87]

On 3/26/2021 at 6:44 PM, CalintzJerevinan said:

How To Repair and Restore Windows 10

1. Click Startup Repair.
2. Click System Restore.
3. Select your username.
4. Type "cmd" into the main search box.
5. Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
6. Type sfc /scannow at command prompt and hit Enter.
7. Click on the download link at the bottom of your screen.
8. Click Accept.

Or try this

 

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3080839/your-step-by-step-guide-to-repairing-windows-10.html

I tried the link/followed the instructions and got "The restore operation completed successfully". So we'll see if the problem persists. Thank you.

[FAHEYGF87]

Well, I'm not sure this was the cause of my issue, but i'm sure it didn't help. Fingers and toes crossed that this fixed my issue. I'm 1 day since removing it and no issues so far.