Hi, strange problem and I can't figure out what's going on.
So here's what happens when I start my PC.
Windows loads fine (all though sometimes I get stuck at the loading screen with a constant spinning circle all though usually a reboot fixes this straight away, and it doesn't happen very often anyway, I assumed it was a Windows 8 bug of some sort) so I put in my password, desktop loads up (I have it set to skip the metro screen)
The mouse turns to the hourglass, I can't click anything, and nothing loads for about 3 - 4 minutes. Blank desktop, nothing in my task bar, can't click the start button. But when it does load, everything is fine, speed wise. It's not slow at all.
But every time now (used to happen sometimes but not every time) the speaker icon is missing from the notification area, and i can't change the volume or mute/unmute. To get it to re-appear, I have to restart Windows Explorer. Again, I have to wait a few minutes, and any program I have open stops responding. Eventually, every thing is fine, and the speaker icon is there.
I've tried a lot of things - virus scans, malware scans, clean boot, registry clean - nothing. The only thing that works is safe mode. The problem doesn't exist in safe mode.
Other symptoms include random restarting, all though this happened before this problem appeared, and not very often. I also get an "error" as Windows is loading my desktop. The same sound it makes when you change the volume slider. Also, wifi cuts out randomly, but only for a few seconds, and my old laptop does that as well so I don't know if it should be included.
Please, any suggestions. This is really bugging me. I'm a noob at software so please don't tell me to do anything in depth and expect me to know how to do it straight away. Last time I queried was just about the error sound at startup, and I had people telling me to download all sorts of programs and I had no idea how to use them. I asked but the thread just died.
It looks like a problem with Windows Explorer, but I wouldn't begin to know how to fix that. Oh, and I have system restored to no avail as well.
Specs:
gigabyte ga-78lmt-usb3 - 760g chipset
FX - 8370
R9 270 DD XFX
Kingston Hyper X RAM (white)
So here's what happens when I start my PC.
Windows loads fine (all though sometimes I get stuck at the loading screen with a constant spinning circle all though usually a reboot fixes this straight away, and it doesn't happen very often anyway, I assumed it was a Windows 8 bug of some sort) so I put in my password, desktop loads up (I have it set to skip the metro screen)
The mouse turns to the hourglass, I can't click anything, and nothing loads for about 3 - 4 minutes. Blank desktop, nothing in my task bar, can't click the start button. But when it does load, everything is fine, speed wise. It's not slow at all.
But every time now (used to happen sometimes but not every time) the speaker icon is missing from the notification area, and i can't change the volume or mute/unmute. To get it to re-appear, I have to restart Windows Explorer. Again, I have to wait a few minutes, and any program I have open stops responding. Eventually, every thing is fine, and the speaker icon is there.
I've tried a lot of things - virus scans, malware scans, clean boot, registry clean - nothing. The only thing that works is safe mode. The problem doesn't exist in safe mode.
Other symptoms include random restarting, all though this happened before this problem appeared, and not very often. I also get an "error" as Windows is loading my desktop. The same sound it makes when you change the volume slider. Also, wifi cuts out randomly, but only for a few seconds, and my old laptop does that as well so I don't know if it should be included.
Please, any suggestions. This is really bugging me. I'm a noob at software so please don't tell me to do anything in depth and expect me to know how to do it straight away. Last time I queried was just about the error sound at startup, and I had people telling me to download all sorts of programs and I had no idea how to use them. I asked but the thread just died.
It looks like a problem with Windows Explorer, but I wouldn't begin to know how to fix that. Oh, and I have system restored to no avail as well.
Specs:
gigabyte ga-78lmt-usb3 - 760g chipset
FX - 8370
R9 270 DD XFX
Kingston Hyper X RAM (white)