Everything just stopped working

Hi,
I am on Windows 10, 64 bit. Audacity 2.1.3.
I was using Audacity just fine until tonight. Everything stopped working, after I had opened it and had stopped recording.
Space bar would not start the recording, delete would not work. It crashed or had some kind of problem. I restarted. It seemed fine. Same thing happened at the end. I reinstalled the latest up-to-date version (the one that crashed was also up to date). Recorded again. Still nothing worked for deleting, space bar on starting audio. Could not export out. What might be the problem.

What are you recording with? (example: a Samson C01 Condenser Microphone connected to the USB port of my HP Spectre x360 laptop.)
How much free disk space on the drive that you are recording to?
Did the computer go to sleep / hibernate before Audacity froze?
Do the menus open in Audacity?

I was recording internally on the laptop I have.
I have a 6GB laptop that is new - 98% of it still free.
The computer was active, no hibernation. I was watching and listening to the recording at the same time - only audio. I was watching the sound waves, while doing other things. I did this three times. The first time and every time after I got this message:
“Audacity, the free, cross platform sound editor has stopped working . a problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.”
No solution was available.
Menus opened on Audacity - very few options highlighted on any of them. I could import, no export, etc.

That is very odd. If Audacity has stopped responding, I would not expect menus to respond. Are you sure that you are not combining two different situations in your description?

Just thought, if Audacity is not responding, but (mostly) greyed out menus still respond, it could be that Audacity is waiting for user input, such as clicking “OK” in a dialog screen, but the dialog screen has become hidden behind the main window or anther window, or minimised. Try “Alt+Tab” to cycle through current windows.

That is very odd. If Audacity has stopped responding, I would not expect menus to respond. Are you sure that you are not combining two different situations in your description?

Very sure this was not two different situations.

Just thought, if Audacity is not responding, but (mostly) greyed out menus still respond, it could be that Audacity is waiting for user input, such as clicking “OK” in a dialog screen, but the dialog screen has become hidden behind the main window or anther window, or minimised. Try “Alt+Tab” to cycle through current windows.

Audacity was not waiting for any input or dialog. I went thru the whole thing 3 times. Then “downloaded a fresh copy” with the updated version. That did it as well. It was working fine on the laptop from the download 5/14/17. I uninstalled and reinstalled. The audio will not start no matter how I adjust the control for sounds.

Please tell us exactly what you are trying to record - internal microphone - a song playing in your web browser?

What exactly do the the four boxes currently say in Device Toolbar? Also post the complete output of Help > Audio Device Info… so we can see what devices Audacity sees.

Cold boot the computer. Windows button, Power button, hold SHIFT on your computer keyboard and press Shut down".

Does this computer claim to support Windows 10? What is the exact make and model number of the computer?


Gale

Did you select “Reset Preferences” in one of the steps in the re-installation process? I’m having to re-install and reset preferences after Audacity stops working. I haven’t been able to identify why it stops working, nor have I found a setting that will get Audacity to start working again.
So I do: uninstall, reboot, reinstall wiping out preferences, connect device, edit preferences, and usually good to go.