DOC TOR
THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...↘ submit your questions to: [email protected]
Win11 Firewall flop
Router add-ons
Chuck Start menu
Windows 11
Firewall failure
I am a long-time subscriber
to Maximum PC and have a
self-built desktop running
a Ryzen 5 3400G CPU with
an M.2 970 EVO 500GB as
system drive, with additional
SSDs and a spinning disk
drive on an Asus X570-P lus
(Wi-Fi ). I tried a Windows 11
upgrade , both as an Insider
and via a USB created using
the Media Creation Tool.
Windows 10 is running fine,
including Windows Defender
Firewall and Bitdefender
antivirus, and no other
firewall is installed.
Immediately after either
update or setup, everything
looks good and the Defender
Firewall is running but, after
any reboot, the Firewall
will not run. The Windows
Defender Firewall Service is
continually toggling between
‘Running’ and ‘Starting’
and all ‘changes in service
status’ is grayed out.
The Base Filtering
Engine service is running
and a ny attempt to modify
Firewall settings in Control
Panel produces an error
(0x8007045b or 0x800706d9).
All settings in Firewall and
Network Protection are
grayed out and resetting the
Firewall has no effect.SFC finds no problem and
DISM Check Health, Scan
Health , or Restore Health
find no problem. Windows
Firewall Troubleshooter
can’t find a problem either.
I've chatted with Microsoft
twice, with no success. Their
final recommendation seems
to be a complete clean
install , which I don’t want to
do since Win10 is working
fine. Any suggestions or help
would be appreciated.
—Mike ScottTHE DOCTOR RESPONDS:
We first asked if Mike had
tried a full reset of the
Windows Security app. He
replied to say that the three
methods we sent all failed:
there was no Windows
Security shortcut in the
Start menu, attempting
to open it via ‘Settings
> Privacy & security >
Windows Security > Open
Windows Security’ resulted
in a ‘module could not be
found’ error and, finally , the
Powershell route returned
the error, ‘Path does not
exist’ from the following
command:
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.
Windows.SecHealthUI* |
Reset-AppxPackage
We directed Mike towards
using SFC in Safe mode,which found nothing, as
well as using the various
tools offered by Tweaking.
com’s Windows Repair Tool
(www.tweaking.com), but
it appeared his installation
had been damaged beyond
simple repair. Assuming
Mike has no fail-safe drive
image to allow him to
reverse his PC to the point
before he attempted the
Windows 11 upgrade, he
has two choices—either
bite the bullet and go for the
clean reinstall as Microsoft
suggests, or look to a third-
party firewall to replace
Windows Defender.
The obvious free option
here would be ZoneAlarm
Free ( http://www.zonealarm.com/
software/free-firewall),
which has the added
benefit of providing you
with tools for monitoring
and , if necessary, blocking
programs installed on your
PC (including any unwanted
programs or malware) from
accessing the internet.Overclocking
conundrum
Back in issue 197, you
answered my question on
a sporadic wake problem I
was having. While the issue
has been greatly improved,
it still happened a couple oftimes. Then, about a month
ago I invested in an Oculus
Quest 2 so I could play Half-
Life: A lyx. Though it worked
well enough, it seemed
to really need some extra
horsepower.
So, after a lot of research,
I’ve dabbled in overclocking
for the first time. I started
using Cinebench to test
each step up but eventually
reached a point where it
generated an unspecified
error and quit.
I couldn’t find any details
about the error, so I tried
some other tools and found
that OCCT revealed some
interesting information.
When it started to generate
errors, it was always flagged
against ‘core 5’. I would then
raise the CPU voltage a step
and try again. This worked
until I had worked from 3200
up to 3450. At this point,
I got more errors, but before
I could do anything else, I got
hit by the shutdown issue.
I am wondering whether
the issue with core 5 could
imply that there is some
defect in that core that has
been triggered by other
issues in the past (such
as overheating when I had
the clogged bottom vent).
I am seriously considering
upgrading the Ryzen 7 2600quickstart
14 MAXIMU MPC MAR 2022