Windows could not connect to the Group Policy Client service

[etaf]

I have spent days searching and looking into this issue

Also searched this forum and have replied to similar posts - But here is a thread of my own.

I Setup a new PC for a friend on Saturday 28/11/15
Brand new desktop with Windows 10
Setup using a local Admin Account

2 days later - message appears on starting up (after the login prompt)

"Windows could not connect to the Group Policy Client service. This problem prevents standard users from logging on to the system."The the PC is slow to respond , would not open WLM or Chrome
And takes 10mins to shutdown

Choose to hold the Shift Key and restart - Then Contine
Which fixes the issue - for a few reboots !!!!

Windows 10 has also updated to 1511 Threshold 2
Still occurs

I have tried - and with MS Chat assistance - and all have failed

1) New profile
2) SFC /Scannow
3) Clean Boot

I then read about and was also advised by MS of a registry change for grpsvc
I notice the issue is that
Group Policy Client - does not have a status of "running"
I checked a couple of windows 10 PCs and they all have the Status "running" although none had the registry entries recommended and all have worked fine for months
However, MS - updated and changed the registry and now we have the status of "running"

next day it gave the message and problems returned
This time I notice that the GPC status is blank again

Despite the registry changes - still having the issue - every day for 10days now

with a reboot using the shift key
fixes the issue and GPC is running again

I'm at a loss what to do next
MS have said its not a windows problem and refused to further assist - and advised to go back to the OEM
HP have said its a windows issue

I would love to fix for my friend
I'm thinking of just doing a factory reset - But I have read , this does not fix the issue - so could waste many hours

I just read this post
windows couldn't connect to group policy - Windows 10 Forums

Which I may try and see if there is a space - but I have checked the registry now and it is now setup as the various GPC articles
of course , if i do a clean factory reset - that will be removed

Thanks for any help / advice

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I can't imagine what I or anyone else might possibly offer that you haven't tried already. It looks like you've done some serious research and troubleshooting on your own.
I appreciate the link to http://allaboutboats.blogspot.com/2015/04/group-policy-client-services-error.html
It looks like it might hold some promise. Please let us know if those suggestions

I got the "blank line" warning. It "fixed" it and saved.

In video one, also work for you..... very interesting.

 

[etaf]

Thanks for a very quick reply
any suggestions always welcome

i sort of think i'm missing the obvious now .........
And its not like other issues where the web is full of it, just one or two entries and mostly fro older Windows versions

i will have try that link out on the PC

i have been on to a repair friend of mine, who has not seen the issue but had 3 windows 10 machines

Now the intersting thing is that 2 of them did ot have the Group Policy Client running - they just had a blank Status
Under properties it said Stopped

so He rebooted them ALL
and 1 of them changed the service to a status of running - they are all Home and all running the 1511 update

So this maybe a red herring , i'm following !!!!!!!

As i have red that the
netsrv has a different capitalisation of the word a capital I and in a video is a lowercase i
all the machines i have looked at the 3 at a friends and mine have a capital I

Also my PC today has shown the GPC service running and also blank

so who know - I'm going round tomorrow and will install W10 from the factory partition as its still under warranty and leave it like that - No programs no changes , and see if that works - if it does , slowly add and remove the programs i dont want

But as this PC started life on the Pre Nov update , i guess we will also go through that pain as well !!!!!!

 

[etaf]

just found an artile about google chrome causing an issue
cleared the cache and reset the browser
When i went to About
Chrome tried to update and then failed and reported an error
So i uninstalled and re-installed - perhaps chrome is the issue ?
we can only wait and see

 

[Trouble]

I suppose anything is possible, although I wouldn't expect a third party browser to have that kind of an impact on native Windows services.
Please keep us posted.

 

[etaf]

the service has stopped running - But chrome & Windows live mail worked - whereas earlier they would not
we closed chrome and reopened
and now the service is running again

and more importantly the PC is still running well

will be playing around again tonight / tomorrow
and keep you updated - Thanks

 

[etaf]

11/12/15 12:00
Seems to have resolved the issue - been working 17hrs now and machine has been rebooted and switche on off a few times
Been working now , with no issue, and chrome is now able to start the GPC service (dont know how - but thats the observation)

 

[Becs]

Etaf I have noticed the Chrome problem. I have experienced exactly the same issue which seemed to start after I installed some software including Chrome. Chrome could not be accessed at all so I used Revo to uninstall it. I also had to uninstal One System Clean up which seemed to creep in. All worked well but then I re-installed Chrome and get the same problem with Group Client. I uninstalled Chrome but the problem has returned AND I get a little message which appears to be part of a System Clean up tool. Do u have a link to the Chrome article?

 

[etaf]

Its still an issue on the PC _ does not want to re-install w10
strange because since then I have setup 5 W10 PCs and installed Chrome and they have all worked fine !!!

No sorry dont have the link - i will see if i can find again

But there are later links now
https://www.windows10forums.com/thr...nect-to-the-group-policy-client-service.6926/
http://egyptianvulture.blogspot.com.eg/2016/01/the-true-reason-behind-group-policy.html
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chrome/qj07_IN4a7g

 

[Sean D]

I was researching this topic because a customer let the battery on a Tablet expire and resulted in an unbootable device with this message. Clearly a different cause than this thread.

I know it has been months, but I was just wondering something. It appears Google Chrome is involved, but doesn't cause the problem in all cases. Could it also depend on changing the default browser to Chrome? Other layered products can use the default browser for internal functions. Perhaps GPC is having an issue with a specific version of Chrome as the default browser?

Also, a Service with a blank status is just a Service that has crashed and the Status did not get updated.

I am just trying to help track down the cause.

Sean

 

[etaf]

i tried having edge as default and chrome as default - didnt appear to make any difference