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Question

Windows 8 flickering start menu

Nov 3, 2013 5:48AM PST

Hi,

I'm having trouble with my HP laptop. I've had this happen before and I had to completely reset my laptop because of it.

Basically I went to log in this morning, it said my profile couldn't be found and signed me out. I then tried again to log in and the Start menu has been flickering continuously and I can't select anything, it has also 'lost' all of my stuff so it looks like a temporary profile.. I have tried googling for an answer and cannot find anything that works, when I try to 'refresh' my laptop via going to safe mode it comes up with the error code: 80070490. I've tried to do a 'clean boot' in safe mode but that won't work properly.. PLEASE can someone help!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Windows 8 didn't have a Start menu.
Nov 3, 2013 6:16AM PST

So I can't guess how it got one. Did you try a new user account?
Bob

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Windows 8.1 has a start BUTTON you can right-click
Nov 3, 2013 6:38AM PST

but as Bob says, the legacy Start menu isn't there in 8 or 8.1 unless you install something like Classic Shell or Start8. But it sounds like you have a corrupt system. If you have a full system backup, you should restore from it. If you don't you may have to restore your computer to factory settings.
`
Good luck.

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Took a video of what I meant
Nov 3, 2013 6:45AM PST
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Your DESKTOP is flickering.
Nov 3, 2013 6:53AM PST

Something is obviously corrupt, so I'd check the video driver in Device Manager if you can access it. If you can't, then you'll need to do like I said and restore to factory settings or restore from a backup if you have one.

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Why...
Nov 3, 2013 6:59AM PST

Why is this happening though? This is the second time now, I had to restore it back to factory settings before, I just don't understand why it keeps happening? :/

And when you say 'check the video driver' - what do you mean?

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Something is getting corrupted in your software
Nov 3, 2013 7:10AM PST

How that's happening, I couldn't say. There're numerous possibilities including viruses and malware, running programs unsupported by Windows 8, improper drivers, etc. When I say check your video driver, I mean go to Device Manager and click where it says Display Adapters. Look to see if it says "The device is operating properly". Also look to see if there's a ! or ? anywhere in Device Manager.
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Good luck.

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I see..
Nov 3, 2013 7:30AM PST

thank you for your replies. I seem to be able to access things on a new user account but my primary one is now not even logging in, it says 'Group Policy Client Service Failed the logon - Access Denied'. I checked device manager and there are no problems there (with regards to !'s and ?'s). Just wondered if there was anything to fix the above new error before I do a system restore?

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Some things to try
Nov 3, 2013 7:55AM PST

You could run Defender and let it do a full system scan for viruses and the like. If you can boot to the Command Prompt (or get to an administrator level command prompt), you can run SFC to attempt to locate and correct any corrupted files with this command: sfc /f /r .
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<span id="INSERTION_MARKER"> When you've gotten your system back like you want it, I urge you to get yourself an external hard drive and a good 3rd party backup program. You can set it up to do everything automagically at the time and frequency of your choice. 1 TB external hard drives are about $70 these days and a really good FREE backup program is the Easeus Todo Backup Free which you can download fromhttp://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm . That can save you a lot of time and frustration the next time something like this happens. Sooner or later it happens to all computers for one reason or another. Good luck.