Access denied on killing a process, cmd doesn't work

[Zubkover]

Hi... so I have this strange issue...

I fired up Steam and then Dirt 3. Everything was fine, but I wanted to minimize it for a sec to fire up Chrome, to I alt-entered (key shortcut for windowed mode)... and black screen. No alt+f4 or alt tabing worked, so I pressed my power button (mapped for soft windows shutdown). Then after a reboot I can't fire up the game since it's "currently running".

 

In processes - nothing

In details - dirt3_game.exe is "Running"

If I try to kill it I get "acces denied"

If I try to kill it with taskkill in cmd I get " could not be terminated" with comment "there is no running instance of this task" 

 

Anybody has any idea how to kill it?
Rebooting makes dirt3_game still popping it after windows starts

[Wwadsworth]

Do a restart one more time. If that doesn't work open command prompt admin by right clicking it. Type in, "net user administrator /active:yes" then log out of your account log into the administrator account and try to kill it there.

 

Be sure not to use the Admin account all the time. I would recommend de-activating once done or just setting a password to it and only access it in these rare situations. Deactivate it by typing "net user administrator /active:no" in Command Prompt (Admin). Alternatively set a password for it in command prompt admin "Net user administrator password" where "password" is one you set. 

Edited August 25, 2017 by Wwadsworth
Admin shouldn't be used all the time

[Zubkover]

19 minutes ago, Wwadsworth said:

snip

Yea, aware of that "security feature'

Still. Same reaction. No matter cmd or normal "End Task"

[Wwadsworth]

I would check the integrity of the files on steam then. If that doesn't work you could have invalid registry entries.... Perhaps a uninstall from control panel could fix some issues?

[Zubkover]

4 minutes ago, Wwadsworth said:

I would check the integrity of the files on steam then. If that doesn't work you could have invalid registry entries.... Perhaps a uninstall from control panel could fix some issues?

I can't. Both say it's still running. That's the root of the issue here.

[GER_T4IGA]

1 minute ago, Zubkover said:

I can't. Both say it's still running. That's the root of the issue here.

Have you tried restarting it yet as previously suggested?

[Zubkover]

Just now, GER_T4IGA said:

Have you tried restarting it yet as previously suggested?

5th time now in fact. With unplugging from the wall for several minutes to clear caps and RAM.

[Wwadsworth]

System restore? Or Disk Cleanup?

 

I found this here

[Zubkover]

39 minutes ago, Wwadsworth said:

System restore? Or Disk Cleanup?

 

I found this here

For some strange reason Win10 blocked for me System Restore feature, so I'd have to revert to Win 7... on which there are problems with my USB drivers which crashout native drivers and whole usb array doesn't work...

[Wwadsworth]

Reinstall windows 10 using the media creation tool. 

[Zubkover]

48 minutes ago, Wwadsworth said:

Reinstall windows 10 using the media creation tool. 

I installed it 2 days ago. XXXD

[paddy-stone]

Is this a program that is in your startup apps? if so go into task manager and go to startup tab, disable or delete the prog from starting up whjen windows does and then reboot.

[Ashleyyyy]

boot into safe mode...

[Zubkover]

Just now, paddy-stone said:

Is this a program that is in your startup apps? if so go into task manager and go to startup tab, disable or delete the prog from starting up whjen windows does and then reboot.

It's not in either Task Manager's or CCleaner's one. None of it. But it still launches each time and blocks everything

[paddy-stone]

OK, you may have to go into update and backup settings and choose advanced startup and see if that prevents it from executing at boot, then uninstall while you're in there if you can.

If not then you're looking at doing a refresh, which at least won't be quite as bad as a full manaul re-install.

[Zubkover]

41 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

boot into safe mode...

Thank you, for stating the obvious. Man. Did I forget about that mode each time.

 

Reboot into Safe Mode and Restart does the trick, no work involved.

I actually was able to immediately reproduce the issue and I now know what's wrong - for some apparent issue while some ppl get greenscreen after enabling csaa type of AA I get black screen and app hang after changing resolution. Oh well.

Thanks everyone for input on solving the issue