Hi Zwift Community,
This is my second season using Zwift for winter training. Last year, everything worked flawlessly, but I’ve recently started encountering issues that are becoming quite frustrating. Here’s my setup and the problem:
Indoor Trainer: Elite Direto XR
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit with 8GB RAM
Connectivity: ANT+ stick with a long cable
Zwift App: Installed on my notebook
Processor: Intel(R) Core™ i7-4510U CPU @ 2.00GHz
The problem: After about 30–34 minutes into my training sessions, the Zwift app starts stumbling (e.g., lagging and freezing). This worsens progressively over 5–10 minutes until the entire system freezes, forcing me to shut everything down. Unfortunately, I lose my workout data because I can’t save it.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
- Reinstalling the app.
- Updating the app after reinstalling (it worked fine for a few days).
Despite these steps, the issue returned yesterday. It’s incredibly frustrating, and I’m even considering canceling my subscription and switching to another platform.
I have very few hours training time available to to my job and family duties as many other here I think and I don’t want to spend my limited training hours with troubleshooting Zwift instead of actual training.
Interestingly, some fellow cyclists in my riding community have reported experiencing similar issues recently.
I’d appreciate any insights or solutions that could help resolve this problem. Is this a known issue, and is Zwift working on a fix?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Are you using the integrated graphics on that CPU, or do you have a separate GPU?
I’m using integrated: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family. I don’t know if it is in issue, or not in this case. As I wrote, I used the same configuration last year with no issue.
Sometimes installing the latest video driver downloaded from Intel’s website helps. More of an issue with later models. Your system is also expected to perform pretty poorly based on the spec. You could check that by uploading a log file to zwiftalizer.com. One thing I observe from prior reports is that a lot of people are running at very low resolution in Zwift settings, possibly to improve performance.
Do you have solid state storage in that laptop? If not you should replace the hard drive.
Also make sure you are not running OneDrive or any anti-virus software other than Microsoft Defender.
Your fellow cyclists reporting stability problems may very well be using AMD Ryzen based systems which are currently affected by a bug.
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Really good tips—thank you! I’ll start by updating my graphics driver, stopping OneDrive syncing, and shutting down my antivirus during training sessions. I have an HDD, but I’m not sure if I’ll switch to an SSD just yet. Lowering the Zwift graphics resolution also sounds like a great idea; I’ll need to figure out where to adjust that.
Taking your advise @Paul_Southworth I have checked if more up to date driver is available, but seems not. It is more likely that my whole system is quite old by this time. I will now investigate where to adjust the resolution.
You can change resolution inn Zwift settings. The hard drive replacement would add a lot of life to an old laptop for very little cost. Big speed improvement.