No help with crash log

Bugs and Support
1

I’m sorry to bring this to the forum but I’m at my wits end. I’ve posted two crash logs, 1/16 and 1/17, and have only received automated responses. I have looked through both support and the forums to resolve these issues but to no avail.
The problem: Zwift crashes during ride, every ride. Most times during the ride my avatar will coast to a stop as all the data goes to zero but then starts again. This happens once, sometimes twice. Then eventually the program freezes up. Trying to restart, sometimes I can’t even get through the log in. If I restart my laptop and then Zwift again it will start only to freeze up a short distance down the road.
The equipment:
A brand new Lenovo laptop dedicated exclusively to Zwift. No other apps are running on it. Windows 10 OS.
A Saris M2 trainer.
A Kurt Kinetic dongle.
Samsung Galaxy 7 with Zwift Companion running.
A Garmin heart rate monitor.
I’m connected to a large monitor via HDMI.

I’ve updated every piece of equipment.
I’ve uninstalled Zwift completely, removing all files, then reinstalled.
I’ve uploaded the “missing” files from Microsoft for Windows 10.
I’ve tried riding without the Companion and my heart rate monitor but still crashed.

This has been going on for nearly four weeks and i am very frustrated with the performance and the lack of response from Zwift. I used Zwift for three months last spring with no troubles. I have a lot of money and time wrapped up into this and would really appreciate some help from someone to resolve this. All the best. Thanks.

2

It seems like your computer is losing the connection with your trainer.
When you say Kinetic dongle, are you connecting via Ant+?
Are you using a USB extension cord?
You might try using a different USB port, +/- the extension cord.
Can you connect using Blue tooth?
That’s just a start.
I don’t have that model trainer so I can’t address any specific issues related to the trainer.

3

You also may try to down load the Android game directly to your phone and see if you can ride in game on your phone.
These things may help you isolate your issue.

4

“crashes” like in “exits the program” or as in “has issues mid-ride”?

5

Has issues mid-ride. It freezes up and my laptop says “Zwift not responding”.

6

Yes, the dongle is ANT+ for my heart rate monitor. There is no USB cord being used. I am using a HDMI cord to connect the laptop to the monitor. The thing is, this arrangement worked great seven months with a laptop that was on its last leg. I don’t understand why it won’t work now aside from changes that were made by Zwift. Thanks.

7

Yeah, sounds like something is not cooperating.
I never get a Zwift not responding message except after an update, I have to close and restart the program but the initial opened program wont close till something times out with that message then I can close.
I have not had your issue and I don’t know enough about computers or software to really help you.
There is a lot of very knowledgeable folks on the forum though and they may help.
Good luck.

8

Intel GPU perhaps?

9

Dave, sorry to hear that you have all these troubles. In your place, I would go through every piece of hardware and would evaluate it for the possibility that it can be a culprit.

The first piece of hardware is your trainer. Trainers have firmware which has to be updated on a periodic basis. This is usually done using an application provided by the trainer manufacturer. Did you check if your firmware is current? Many of Zwift problems are caused by outdated firmware which can no longer talk to Zwift in a language which it expects.

The second piece of hardware is ANT+ dongle. You have a fairly expensive, extended range dongle, but it still can have issues if your laptop is too far from your trainer, or if there are interferences with your wi-fi router or other equipment. Has anything changed during the time when you used your old laptop?

Finally, parameters of your laptop. “Lenovo” does not tell much about what you have inside of your laptop - hard disk, RAM, type of graphics - does this laptop meet the requirements? Does it have enough RAM? Does it have enough disk space? Is it a high end laptop or the cheapest of the cheap?

Finally, you could look up hardware diagnostic / monitoring tools and stress-test your laptop. I am particularly curious about how your processor temperature changes as you ride in zwift, and if your hard disk may have errors. Overheating of the laptop could lead to its freezing (and this would go in line with the fact that you sometimes even cannot restart Windows and get to log in - does it look like your laptop needs a little time to cool down? Is its fan buzzing at full speed?). Overheating could mean poor assembly quality (heat conducting paste not properly applied) or a broken fan. There is cpu monitoring software (freeware) which tells you CPU temperature in real time. An alternative (although indirect) way to check if it is overheating is to lift the laptop slightly (put a couple of books under its edges) to let air flow around it, and use a desktop fan to blow air on it. If Zwift stops freezing with a fan, it is 100% overheating. Checking DRAM can also be useful, although computer is likely to crash with blue screen of death or reboot if DRAM is at fault.

LOG file is a text file, have you looked through it to see if anything unusual shows up? It is fairly easy to understand, and problems are clearly visible. If it is a computer hardware problem, by the way, log file may show nothing unusual at all.

The last thought, you could try to delete your swap file and let windows recreate it.

And the very last thought, how good is your internet connection? It is not 100% clear how long Zwift can run if internet connection is broken, but the users wisdom seems to point out towards a thought that spotty internet might lead to issues. Log file should, I think, spell out internet connectivity issues. Is there a possibility that you moved your setup further away from your wifi router, or changed the router?

10

“App not responding” is an indication of an issue entirely residing within you computer’s domain. Basically (and somewhat simplifying…), an app is not responding to Windows control. It may be triggered by an external event (sensor…), but it would still be classified as an issue with the computer’s software.

This is assuming your computers stays completely responsive, while Zwift is not.

This boils down to the following:

  • Zwift bug (In which can others would have had the same issue…)
  • Windows driver (graphics, other) dug
  • General Windows issue.

There isn’t much one can do wrt to the first (short of waiting for an update), but as for the other sources, please make sure Windows is fully updated (yes, sometime updating Windows add issues rather than solves them…), and all drivers are as well.

11

Is this what you see when you click on the app?
download

12

Yes, except it says Zwiftapp not Badapp.

13

Hi Andrei
I’d like to answer some of your questions.
The laptop is a Lenovo LAPTOP-SDACRPF1
The installed RAM is 12 GB with 11.7 usable
The processor is an Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00GHz 1.19 GHz
The OS is Windows 10 Home version 20H2
The system type is a 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

The maxed out, on its-last-leg laptop we were using before without issue is an
Asus DESKTOP ITVM993
RAM is 6 GB
Processor is an Intel i7-5500U CPU @ 2.4 GHz
The OS is Windows 10 Home version 1903

The new laptop is not a cheap one nor is it a top of the line model. We were however assured when purchasing it that it would be sufficient to run the Zwift app. Again, the Zwift app is all that is running. The laptop is within arm’s reach while I’m riding so about 3.5 feet from the trainer.

As I stated before all of my devices have been updated, including my trainer. I rode without the Companion app running and the program stopped responding. I rode without the dongle plugged into the laptop yesterday and the program stopped responding. I rode today without the dongle and the Companion app and it stopped responding after 10 minutes of riding which is hardly long enough I would assume for the laptop to even begin to get warm so I doubt overheating is the culprit.
Look, I’m a home builder not computer programmer. I barely know enough about this stuff to get it hooked up and running. That’s where I thought support would come to the rescue. When I’m asked to navigate myself down to the sixth level of hell in my laptop to retrieve some log or report and analyze it, well I’ll admit I’m in trouble.
And as a side note, I have still not received any response from my crash logs from a week ago so I have not bothered to post logs from the last two crashes. I would really like to get some riding in before the weather gets warm enough to ride outside again. If that’s the case what’s the point.
Thanks.

14

Dave, from what I can tell from participating in discussions on several forums, the issue which you unfortunately ran into is very uncommon. It is very likely that it is not Zwift software per say, but something going on with your computer or hardware outside Zwift. While I also share your hope that your message on the forum attracts someone’s attention at Zwift, they may or may not be able to suggest a solution in this case.

I can make several more suggestions, though.

  1. Log files are located in

C:\Users\ DAVE \Documents\Zwift\Logs

where DAVE should be replaced with your user name. You will find in this folder several log files, LOG.txt is the newest one, and several old files, labelled so. Is this what you upload to Zwift? These files are not hard to read, and they may give you clues. You will probably want to start from the end of the file.

  1. Try reinstalling the windows. Your hard disk has a recovery partition with full copy of Windows installation files. Look up in your computer manual how to do it. Since you did not install anything on your laptop, you do not need to worry about backup. After reinstalling and updating Windows to the latest version, install Zwift from scratch.

This is not hard to do, it will reset your operating system, will remove all possible mis-configurations, will wipe out all possible malware, etc.,etc.

  1. If this does not help, install a trial of an alternative app, e.g., Rouvy or The Sufferfest. This will enable you to test how your computer talks to your trainer, i.e., separate computer issue from trainer issue and from dongle issue.

Test of hardware of your laptop is still appropriate. If you ran other software on your laptop, you would have a better idea of whether it has a tendency to freeze after some time or overheat, but with Zwift alone, it is much harder to judge.

Just think about it, if it is a damaged installation of Windows, or misconfigured windows, or maybe even a virus on your laptop which your caught during browsing the net without knowing, or hardware issue of your laptop (Lenovo, mind you, is a good brand, but it is a Chinese brand which China bought from IBM years back, so you know…), how Zwift team will help you to resolve that? Or if it is an issue with your trainer, e.g., an old firmware version, or overheating issue with the trainer (believe me, I read about such issues), Zwift might have a list of ideas what you could check, but they will not own that issue because they did not built your trainer or your laptop. Unfortunately, indoor bike training instantly becomes a system issue when you combine hardware and software from different manufacturers. Only when Zwift releases their hardware trainer, they will own the whole ecosystem.

I understand that you feel that “Zwift freezes on me, so it is an issue with Zwift”, but in reality it may have nothing to do with Zwift program at all.

15

I also don’t know much about computers but the air blowing out of my lap top becomes very warm within 2 min of starting Zwift.
I now put my laptop on a cooling pad while Zwifting and I think that has helped my freezing issues.

16

Thanks Tim. We’ve been doing a few things hoping to rectify the matter. Tomorrow I’ll be going for another test drive and I’ll raise the laptop up for a little more air flow. More to come.

17

Hi @Dave_Tworek

I checked the account associated with the user name you are using here on the forum, and we haven’t got any emails from you since last spring, so if you would like more specialized assistance with this issue, I would highly encourage contacting us at support@zwift.com, attaching the entire contents of your logs folder, including the computerspec.txt file and also attaching any relevant crash logs you may have.

Having said that, I took a look into your account and our system is recording your current graphic driver as the 27.20.100.8729 for the Intel(R) UHD Graphics 10th gen integrated graphics, which is a Lenovo driver that is several months old. We highly recommend updating to a more recent driver as old drivers can have stability issues. If updating your driver doesn’t help, or if you need more help with any of the processes mentioned, please contact us as advised above so we can take a closer look into your issue!

We are currently dealing with a large volume of conversations, so there might be a bit of a wait time, but all emails are being addressed in the order received.

2 Likes
18

Hi Seth,
Here’s an update. We uninstalled Windows and reinstalled it. We also updated the graphics driver. I took it for a test spin with the laptop elevated trying to be sure it didn’t overheat. I did 43.7 miles on the Bigfoot Hills course without incident. At this time it appears to be solved.
If I may, I’d like to explain my frustration. We, my wife and I, have been dealing with this for four weeks now. For three weeks we were trying everything we could find on the forums to resolve the issues. Also, I have a friend who has been Zwifting for a while and he was attempting to help with solutions to his past similar issues. He told us that one Saturday evening he filed a crash log with Zwift and Sunday morning someone was helping him, ultimately solving the issue quickly. So after sending two crash logs, getting automatic responses that said someone would be helping us right away you can imagine my frustration when it took a week to get a response. Here’s the weird part, the automated replies Zwift sent disappeared from my email inbox and you tell me you haven’t seen an email from us since last spring. Strange.
I’m not a computer person, so when you say to go to support and perform certain tasks and send the results to you, this is not a real simple matter for me. If I were able to send an email directly to support that says, “I’m having problems with such and such.” and you then responded with even a dumbed down boiler plate list of instructions on how to at least begin addressing the issues, that would be much better than having to search through support to find the solution.
As far as the user name thing is concerned, this may be something that should be more explicit in the crash log instructions. We simply labeled it so we knew what it was with our files. Had we been told explicitly to be sure the file name contained my user name this problem may have been averted.
Please take this as constructive criticism. I love Zwift and promote it to others all the time. I just think some of us who aren’t so tech savvy are having a tough time dealing with issues when maybe a little more direct access personal support might help.
I will keep you updated as I bring the Companion and dongle back into system.
All the best and thanks for all the help, Dave

19

Andrei,
Success! We uninstalled/reinstalled Windows and in doing so found a graphics driver that needed updating. Seth, from Zwift, also discovered this and suggested updating it. We also elevated the laptop to be sure it is staying cool as per you and Tim. Went for 43 mile ride today with no issues. I’ll be adding the dongle and Companion back one at a time to be sure everything is up and running properly. Thanks for all the help.

20

Awesome! Congratulations! I am glad that I was able to help!