Computer is an HP 15-gw0000 laptop running Windows 11 . For the past week or so, whenever I do a cold start or restart the desktop and taskbar appear briefly, then either disappear completely or flash; either way I can’t proceed. If the former, Windows Explorer is missing from Task Manager (I can get there using Ctrl-Alt-Del, so the OS is running); if the latter, it comes and goes in approximately the same rhythm as the flashes. The only way to recover is to boot into Troubleshooting and either roll back to a previous restore point or run Start-up Repair, which I have a feeling is doing the same thing. Then I can start normally until the next time.
According to Microsoft, the culprit is either a bad video driver or a bad application. Since Task Manager doesn’t flash, it’s probably not a video issue; and as far as I know there have been no OS updates or new/updated applications. So I’m left in the dark, pretty much literally as far as the desktop is concerned.
I have a sneaking/sinking feeling my only way out is at least an OS reinstall or a system reset, and to that end I’ve been sucking everything I think is even slightly relevant off onto a thumb drive. But before I push the red button I figured it wouldn’t hurt to run the problem past the Dope. As always, thanks in advance for any suggestions/insights.
I think your plan is sound. Get everything file-wise off the computer and do a reinstall. Make sure you have an aux HD that is backing up whatever you have automatically (or do it at the end of each day yourself). Once it’s up and running, install programs one at a time and see if it triggers this again.
First off, what happens if you just Run explorer.exe from Task Manager after it completely crashes? Does it do the same thing? I’m not sure this will help anything, but I’m curious if it’s something going on at boot that takes out Explorer, or if explorer itself fails.
The main thing I can think to try is to disable all startup apps before rebooting, and see if anything changes. Similarly, you could try this program and disable any shell extensions (mini-programs that run when you launch Explorer and add features).
And then, if any of this works, you would reenable things until you found the culprit.
It has been a long, long time since I ran Windows, but have you tried something in the terminal/console/cmd window (whatever it is called these days) like this:
There are a lot of 3rd-party extensions meant to connect into Explorer that Explorer needs to defend itself carefully from. Buggy or version-incompatible examples can crash Explorer, and Windows gets the blame.
Since the Win95 days MS has gotten a lot better at detecting and defeating this stuff. Explorer is real well-armored against bad plug-ins, shell extensions, etc. But there’s always a chance of an as-yet unfixed crashing incompatibility.
I don’t know that I can give any specific advice unless you’re already a real windows administration guru. And if you were, you’d already be doing the techie things.
One bit f good news: If the problem is common, they’ll be getting lots of telemetry reports about this quickly. Failure to boot to desktop errors are real high priority for fixing.
Try firing up Event Viewer by running eventvwr.exe from Task Manager. Open up Windows Logs->Application and check for “Error” entries. Exactly what shows up is hard to say, but you may find a clue (like, a shell extension of the kind that BigT and LSLGuy mentioned).
Here’s an example of one that I just spotted on my system:
Didn’t cause any Explorer problems; this one just crashed itself. But I can easily see that it’s from the software included with my motherboard.
Well, I think* I have the problem solved. Microsoft’s diagnostics said that it’s not a video issue if the Task Manager window isn’t flashing, but on the time-honored principle that “it couldn’t make things worse” I rolled back the display driver in Device Management — it was “updated” about six weeks ago — et voilà, after a restart the taskbar and desktop appeared normally. Multiple restarts and power cycles confirm that it’s working. For now.
Why the problem took a while to manifest, and why it crashed explorer, are among the mysteries of the universe, along with dark matter and the enduring popularity of {given the category, insert your target of choice here}. Or just blame it on Windows 11 — works for me.
(Side note: one of the first things I saw when going into Auto Repair was “Your PC did not start correctly.” Gee, thanks, I hadn’t noticed.)
I’ll probably have a bit more to say in response to the discussion, but for the moment I’m just going to enjoy having a functioning laptop. Until if/then, thanks(!) for the insights and suggestions: they are much appreciated.
* Over 40 years in IT have made be a bit cynical about any fix being permanent, especially where Windows is involved.
It’s actually an AMD adapter (Raedon Vega 3, if Device Manager is to be believed). It was a manual up(?)date based on a notification that there was a current release available. I’ll be filing a bug report in the soon future.
As I said (or at least implied), what I found perplexing is that several weeks passed before the driver started causing problems. And I can’t identify anything in the interim which would have triggered the failure
. For the past week or so, whenever I do a cold start or restart the desktop and taskbar appear briefly, then either disappear completely or flash; either way I can’t proceed. If the former, Windows Explorer is missing from Task Manager (I can get there using Ctrl-Alt-Del, so the OS is running); if the latter, it comes and goes in approximately the same rhythm as the flashes. The only way to recover is to boot into Troubleshooting and either roll back to a previous restore point or run Start-up Repair, which I have a feeling is doing the same thing. Then I can start normally until the next time.