This makes no sense at all, help please

This might seem like a vague/simple issue, but it's as "simple" as it's going to sound.

I've never had any real issues with my laptop, but in the last week i've had the weirdest thing start happening. I'll be performing some task, can be anything, nothing particular at all. All of a sudden everything stops working. I can close things out, but I can't open anything.

Right-clicking on the task bar to open the Task Manager doesn't work (only ctrl-alt Delete does), I can't open a single program, the small icons for networks/sound don't work, and when I do get into the Task Manager, CPU usage will drop to 0% or 1%.

Only way to get it to stop is I have to log off and log back in. I've already run a virus scan and nothing came up.

Anyone know what the problem is? Can't find much simply Googling.

 

how old is this laptop, never heard of that occuring before.

You could maybe try if you have everything saved reinstalling windows.

 

It's probably 5 years old? And I actually every couple months do that because my laptop will get bogged down.

Might just be time to get a new computer... idk... I sort of want to just run this thing until it completely dies.

 

Do another re-format and see what happens.

 

^That. Or if your computer is really fucked up, you should get some help online for free, preferably on a white-hat forum.

 

Problem with explorer.exe.

Go into processes in task manager, end it, then "start new task" -> "explorer.exe" if it doesn't come back automatically. If that doesn't work, reformat.

 

try to go to run > services.msc > and try to start a program from there, otherwise re-format. did you use pirate copy of software?