Windows Search Not Working

[RobFox]

Indexing Service not running
Tried Index Rebuild, nothing happens
Tried In Place Repair - does not help
Tried Troubleshooter -
Received message "Windows Search Service not running"
Received message "Windows Search is not working"
Tried starting Windows Search in Services
Received message "Windows could not start the Windows Search service - Error 21 The device is not ready"
Tried fix in KB 2484025
Used attrib -S-H-R on all files *.BLF, *.REGTRANS-MS
Tried to delete *.BLF, *.REGTRANS-MS from CMD(Administrator) prompt
Message: Cannot access the file as used by another process

 

[Corday]

Run DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth then sfc /scannow.

 

[RobFox]

Many thanks

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Image Version: 10.0.19045.2604

[==========================100.0%==========================] The restore operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

Still same problem
Tried starting Windows Search in Services
Received message "Windows could not start the Windows Search service - Error 21 The device is not ready"

 

[xrobwx71]

You know, One of my systems at work exhibited this behavior. I still don't know why. (I have very little time at my job for the whys) DISM and sfc scan (good advice) is the first thing I tried to no avail.

I fixed it by using a system restore point.

 

[x BlueRobot]

I would suggest opening an administrative command prompt and then enter the following command:

pnputil /enum-devices /problem 21

Please post the output in your next post.

 

[RobFox]

C:\WINDOWS\system32>pnputil /enum-devices /problem 21
Microsoft PnP Utility

No devices were found on the system.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Capture Process Monitor Trace
1. Download and run Process Monitor. Leave this running while you perform the next steps.
2. Try starting the service just like you have in the past.
3. Stop Process Monitor as soon as it fails. You can simply do this by clicking the square icon on the toolbar as shown below.

4. Select the File menu...Save... and save the file to your desktop. This is likely the default location. The name (unless changed) will be LogFile.PML. This is fine.
5. Zip up and provide the link to the LogFile.PML file; examples of services to upload to are Dropbox or OneDrive or WeTransfer.

Once the service fails with the same error message as before, then please enter the following commands from an administrative command prompt:

sc qc WSearch
sc query WSearch
pnputil /enum-devices /problem 21

Please post the output of each in your next post.

 

[RobFox]

Thanks for your help BlueRobot.
The Start and stop buttons for Windows Search are now greyed out in Services.

 

[RobFox]

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sc qc WSearch
[SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: WSearch
TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
START_TYPE : 2 AUTO_START (DELAYED)
ERROR_CONTROL : 1 NORMAL
BINARY_PATH_NAME : C:\WINDOWS\system32\SearchIndexer.exe /Embedding
LOAD_ORDER_GROUP :
TAG : 0
DISPLAY_NAME : Windows Search
DEPENDENCIES : RPCSS
: BrokerInfrastructure
SERVICE_START_NAME : LocalSystem

 

[RobFox]

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sc query WSearch

SERVICE_NAME: WSearch
TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
STATE : 3 STOP_PENDING
(NOT_STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
CHECKPOINT : 0x6
WAIT_HINT : 0x7530

 

[x BlueRobot]

You can try and start the service using:

sc start WSearch

 

[Corday]

If this is a corporate environment or if a repair person worked on the unit, sometimes certain "Services" are halted to allow software installations. Any possibility of this?

 

[RobFox]

Thanks Corday but this is not the case.

 

[RobFox]

Thanks BlueRobot:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>sc start WSearch
[SC] StartService FAILED 1056:

An instance of the service is already running.

 

[Corday]

Did you try clearing the "Device Search History"

 

[x BlueRobot]

If the service is now running, does search work?

 

[RobFox]

The service is not running.

Nothing has changed

Not sure what this means:

"An instance of the service is already running"

 

[Corday]

Did you try what I posted in Post #15? "An instance of the service is already running" can be checked in the Event Log.

 

[RobFox]

Thanks Corday - that did not do anything.