I have found this issue described by various users as:
Top window losing focus
or
Taskbar refreshing every 5 seconds
or
explorer.exe crashing and restarting / explorer.exe crash loop
Essentially extremely annoying behaviour not only not allowing to write anything without having to click inside the window, but also closing some Windows 10 dialogues.
I went through a long investigation process and found out that for Dell Laptops migrating into Win10, you may end up with some legacy drivers left there (in my case without even front-end to uninstall them) which will still be called and will crash explorer.exe causing massive CPU usage spikes and in effect the issue described above.
The offending driver was: C:\WINDOWS\System32\IDTNC64.cpl which apparently is a sound driver.
I would suggest that prior to any changes you first check if your system is safe and sound otherwise by running:
sfc /scannow
in console in Administrator mode (elevated mode), which you can do like this:
Hit CTRL+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager
Select File -> Create new task (from top menu)
and then:
And press OK.
Enter the
sfc /scannow
and wait....
If everything is fine, then close console window and proceed to Even Viewer:
Press Windows+R to open the Run dialog, enter eventvwr and hit OK
There under summary of Administrative events in Errors part look for the one with the highest number of errors.
You should find the reason of your problems there, by double clicking the line, choosing Administrative Events from the menu on the left and going through the list looking for Level: Error, Source: Application Error
For me it was:
Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 10.0.10586.0, time stamp: 0x5632d4c0
Faulting module name: IDTNC64.cpl, version: 1.0.6454.0, time stamp: 0x5110e190
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000001154
Faulting process id: 0x1170
Faulting application start time: 0x01d12064eb4ed614
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\IDTNC64.cpl
Report Id: f5071629-6146-48da-9c51-e31661b1596b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
You SHOULD try and uninstall the driver normally first.
I couldn't so the only option for me is to (again in administrator mode) rename the file to IDTNC64.cpl.trash
And wait for an updated version of the driver from Dell.
what if IDT isn't your problem, mine is something called ntdll and before you ask, here are the attempts i have done including the SFC (which said everything was ok):
ReplyDelete1. Uninstalled Norton Completely (Now using Windows Defender), Don't have iCloud, I Don't Have IDT audio Drivers (I have Realtek High Definition Audio & Intel DIsplay(R) Audio as my sound drivers)
2. I stopped the windows error reporting service and another one (Got the advice from another post)
3. I have tried upgrading all my drivers to the latest
4. Clean Install also attempted
5. Tried by killing the search, cortana and shellexperince processes (which by the way also crash along with EXPLORER.EXE
6. I did a clean boot disabling all non-microsoft processes & Services(EXPLORER.EXE still crashed and restarted)
7. I have also tried not opening the File Explorer at all and just wait and I dont think EXPLORER.EXE crashed when i did that although i am not sure.
8. I have tried using the recommended scaling of 100% (currently using 125%) and EXPLORER.EXE still crashed
9. I have tried clearing the quick access history and setting the "Open Quick Access" setting to "This PC"
10. I have tried the Hardware & Sound Troubleshooter
11. I have tried the DISM RestoreHealth command in Prompt (And Yes, I opened Command Prompt with Administrator privelages)
12. I have tried Restarting Explorer using The Task Manager (I haven't tried restarting using other methods though)
13. I got the WIndows Performance recorder (haven't used that yet though, but that's for giving out more information about my system in general).
14. I have checked my refresh rate, it is the default 60Hz
ntdll.dll is a native Windows directory which will run 3rd party software so if you've found it failing it's 90% caused by some other piece of software.
DeleteAlso explorer is running regardless of you opening the file explorer part of it AFAIK, as it runs your taskbar for example. So if you do not experience crashes "that much" now it is most likely something else.
Can you link your Administrative Events dump here so I can have a look?
1. run eventvwr.msc from the "Run" dialog
2. expand the Custom Views
3. right click on Administrative Events
4. select "Save all Events in Custom View as..."