Hello, since my old laptop isn’t Windows 11 compatible (i5 3rd generation), I bought a new Lenovo Thinkbook with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and integrated Intel ARC Graphics. The system is up to date, as are all the drivers. Zwift ran smoothly on my old laptop (I never changed any settings).
The graphics on the new laptop are obviously much better, but unfortunately, Zwift isn’t fun at all! The game keeps crashing; it’s as if my avatar is running for a short time, then pauses for a very short moment, and then continues and again and again and so on…
I don’t know much about computer hardware; I just want to Zwift. There are no other programs running on the new laptop at the same time. I bought the laptop primarily for Zwifting.
Did I buy the wrong hardware? Does anyone know what the problem might be?
What you’re describing sounds like a dropout of whatever you paired for Power on the pairing screen. A crash would mean the game unexpectedly closes. You can check for dropouts by uploading a log file to zwiftalizer.com and it will tell you. If that’s what’s happening, and if you are using Bluetooth to pair something to Zwift, the easiest/cheapest solution is usually to install a Bluetooth USB dongle and disable Bluetooth in the laptop. I hesitate to blame the laptop hardware which I know nothing about, but this is not a rare problem and that often fixes it.
I understand, yes, you’re right, I mean “dropout” and not “crash.”
Indeed, I connected the Zwift Smart trainer to my laptop via Bluetooth. I’ll get a dongle and see if it makes a difference.
There are dongle recommendations in this video:
It also recommends disabling the onboard Bluetooth adapter in the BIOS, which is a good idea, but you may find it easier to go into Device Manager, find the Bluetooth adapter, right-click on it and select disable. Do that after you remove anything paired to it in Bluetooth settings and before you install the dongle.
I’ve used the TP Link UB400 and Edimax BT-8500 dongles and both were fine. I understand the TP Link UB500 uses the same chipset as the Edimax BT-8500.
Before I try the dongle… what do you think, might it make a difference to pair the smart trainer via the phone rather than directly with the laptop? (Of course I’ll try that, but I won’t get to it until the next few days, and maybe you have experience with that)
Yes that’s another way to avoid using Bluetooth in the laptop, since it uses Bluetooth in the phone and then WiFi to bridge that signal to the game. If that works better then the dongle would probably help with pairing directly to the PC. Of course there are also some phones with poor Bluetooth performance but in my experience those are mostly really cheap Android phones.
Paul, thank you so much! Your answers are really helpful! I’ll test this and get back to you! Thanks again!