If this is in the wrong place, please move. (FWIW I had an account here before but could not remember the email I set it up with to get a password reminder! Having to start fresh.)
Like subject says. Last night started getting this message on my Windows 10 computer when I attempt to do almost anything except use Chrome, which is pinned to my taskbar. I did a lot of googling but much of what’s suggested is either impossible because when I attempt the step I get “RPC server is unavailable” (again) or it’s more complex than I feel comfortable messing with, like changing things in the registry.
***Possibly/PROBABLY?! important: yesterday, a few hours before I noticed this “RPC” thing, I got a popup prompt suggesting a change in some setting to protect access. Though nothing “changed” performance wise when I ticked the suggested box, a few hours later when I tried to open a folder on the desktop I first got “RPC serve is unavailable” error. Clicked around other folders, none would open either. I think somehow I locked MYSELF out of accessing stuff? Is that even a thing? I thought maybe if I could access event logs, I could pinpoint what the exact action was that I took, since unfortunately I do not recall. Through a circuitous route I eventually did fine event log, but I can’t make heads or tails of it.
Note too that my first thought was to simply roll back - do a s system restore to a few days ago. But that feature seems borked too. I also tried to troubleshoot Windows firewall or their “defender” settings, as suggested in some of the googling but firewall does nothing when I click on it, just sits there.
The start menu does not work normally either - I can bring it up with the “windows” key on my keyboard but it’s not much use since trying to access anything from there just gives that same “RPC server unavailable” error.
I’m honestly afraid to even turn off this computer for fear nothing at all will work, assuming it would even boot back up. At least for now Chrome is functional. This is an Acer machine purchased new summer of 2018, if that matters. I do not think it’s a hardware thing. I’m afraid I screwed things up my own dummy self yesterday when I ticked whatever box was in that popup. :smack:
Would be so grateful for any suggestion. Thanks Dopers!
If so, select “Run”, and then type “services.msc” and hit enter. Once that pops up scroll down to the Remote Procedure Call service and make sure that it is a) running and b) set to Automatic. If you right-click on the entry you’ll get options to start it, or change it’s status on boot etc
Baron Greenback’s suggestion sounds pretty good to me, but I’ll add that if you can’t do what he said, then try rebooting your computer into Safe Mode:
If you’re still seeing the issue even in Safe Mode, then you might be dealing with the beginning of a hardware failure situation (e.g., your hard drive is corrupting data and got the code for Windows itself slightly garbled, so now it’s trying to make a malconfigured RPC call constantly).
Though, before assuming that, you should try running a virus scan or two. And, again, if you can’t get one to run in normal mode, then try to run it in Safe Mode.
If you can’t do anything useful, even in Safe Mode, then we start getting into this territory:
Thanks for the replies you guys. I had already tried everything mentioned except the Safe Mode step, having googled extensively for suggestions before posting here. (Including running the virus scan, it is the first thing I did actually. Avast had no problems running/completing that initial scan, fwiw.) All moot now though because Update: I’m no longer getting the RPC error msg and everything seems to be working fine. Can open everything on the desktop, Start menu works normally, no error messages at all now. What’s funny is I have no idea why! That’s the bottom line for me, stuff is working properly again. For anyone who cares about the tl;dr version, see below.
After I posted this question here, I closed the browser (Chrome, as mentioned). Just for the heck of it, hit the Windows button on my keyboard again a few times, which as mentioned in my OP did bring up the Start menu (whereas trying to access Start the usual way had been resulting in zilch). Also just for the heck of it I drag-dropped the “This PC” icon to my taskbar, as a last ditch hope for temporary workaround til I got this RPC thing figured out, since as I mentioned earlier, the only thing that worked without an error msg was whatever was already on the taskbar (in my case, this was only my Chrome browser). So I dropped the “This PC” icon on taskbar. Clicked it a couple times – nothing happened. Oh well, I figured. Guess I’ll wait for responses to my SDMB post…
Opened the browser to look for a news update (gov’t shutdown, anyone?). While watching news, just out of frustration, idly clicked that “This PC” icon, newly on my taskbar, a couple times. VOILA! The second or third time I clicked it, it opened! I then checked every folder, document, item on my desktop – all the things that before were triggering the “RPC server not aviailable” error. Every single thing works now. Why??? I do not know. Did one of the steps I’d taken earlier, following google prompts before posting here, just need a while to propagate? Didn’t think this stuff works that way but obviously I’m not very savvy about details of how it all works thus needing help. I am so confused about what happened, how it resolved itself OR more likely what step I took along the way that did the trick. Thanks again for the fast responses. I hope to never revisit this issue!
You should get that cleared with a mod because it’s against the board rules to have multiple accounts. I recommed to PM or email a mod or report your own post. They’ll help you.
Many of the services are set to retry and to automatically start. So it may been something simple like the RPC service stopping for some reason and then starting again later.
I didn’t know I needed to get approval from a mod, thanks EinsteinsHund. I will PM someone. I guess it didn’t occur to me that this would amount to “multiple accounts” since the whole reason I had to create a new one was because I don’t remember the email address associated with the previous one so will never be using it again. I mean, even on the remote chance I spontaneously remember it someday I’d see no point in using an old account along with this one. But I do get that some people might have adverse reasons for creating a new account so I’ll contact a mod. Thanks again for the heads up.
I think you may be able to blame Microsoft. Do you have KB971033 installed? If so, uninstall it. That patch is known for borking Windows 7 PCs in the way you describe. It’s not too much of a stretch to expect some Windows 10 PCs to be affected.
