Not sure if this will work on your system or not, but ...
I am finding that if VPN is turned on when I close the browser, then on startup most of the time VPN will not work (orange icon; location unavailable message) -- I have to turn it off for a few seconds, set it to Optimal location when I turn it back on, and when the icon stays blue I can set it back to my original preferred location. Once I've turned it off, back on, and reset the location it then works reliably.