ZWIFT CRASHES everytime I launch it from my windows pc

Hey there. I just noticed lately that I cannot use zwift from my windows pc. It just automatically crashes upon startup after launcher… I have updated everything in my pc and I can even play heavy games on it.

What should I do?

Assuming it used to work then reinstall Zwift from scratch as you may have a corrupted launcher.

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I have reinstalled zwift launcher several times. sometimes it goes through but there some flashes coming from the background. seems like there some glitches.

Also i am trying start an event. When i enter to event 3 minutes later crash zwift program!!

What happend???

I use Windows.7 - 64 ánd bkool smart pro

I reinstall Zwift 2 days ago…

Impossible START…

Exactly the same. Updated nvidia drivers, windows update shows empty list, reinstalled zwift from scratch.

Crashes every time at initialization phase.

Used to work a couple of months ago. I won’t subscribe until it works.

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It will be a tradegy for Zwift if you wouldn’t subscribe.
I was able to help a person on a different forum who had an issue with exactly the same symptoms as you are seeing. He had a new laptop, and yet Zwift would not start (or rather would terminate similar to what you are seeing). I suggested several ideas, the one that worked was to reinstall windows from scratch. All modern computers have a reserve copy of windows stored in a separate partition on the hard drive, and there is a procedure how to repair / reinstall windows. This will take care of all possible misconfigurations, and WIndows will reinstall all drivers in the process. Then, install Zwift from scratch again.

Point was that it is pointless to pay until it works as the subscription model is time based. I’m sure you got that.

Anyways, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, Windows reinstall is no option. On the other hand, driver updates are easy to do.

Does anyone know whether there is a list of registry, %appdata% etc. files and settings anywhere in order to do a full cleanup so that a completely fresh, clean install of zwift would be possible?

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Just an update here.

It turns out that Zwift works only if I’m connected to my external monitor and it is the only display in use by Windows. Any other combination (PC screen only, extended, duplicate) causes the crash.

Crash occurs after clicking “let’s go” on the small startup window. The bigger window appears but stays white and unresponsive until a few seconds later the application crashes. The error messages and log files are not giving any clue to the reason of the crash (poor programming!).

Reinstall and cleanup of any found parts of Zwift around the hard drive did not help. It is as if there is still some stupid setting somewhere that does not go away during the reinstall and causes Zwift to mess up itself with the connected external displays.

Where is that “somewhere” and how to clean it up?
Note that even if I use the laptop disconnected from external display it crashes.

I wonder what your zwift log file says? When Zwift loads, it saves in the log file a lot of information about the PC configuration, including messages about what it does not like. The symptoms make one think along the lines of a graphics driver, perhaps, or graphic driver settings. Zwift is quite sensitive to the version of OpenGL, too.

Zwift only requires a display adapter and driver that can handle OpenGL 3.1. It was released in March 2009.

Perhaps. But these types of crashes suggest an issue with the graphics driver. I would look up which graphics adapter this computer uses and would look up on the vendor web site if a newer graphics driver is available. Windows may or may not have that latest driver as it usually relies on generic, not vendor specific drivers. A driver released in 2009, even if it can support the right version of OpenGL, might not work with the current version of Windows. I am not even saying that we do not know how old this computer is. I have an older laptop, perhaps from around 2014, which graphics capability is not sufficient to run Zwift at all.

It’s HP ZBook. I’ve tried updating the drivers already and it did not change anything. Maybe there is a setting somewhere that makes this happen but I can’t figure out which one.

Some checking out reveals that the laptop display uses Intel HD Graphics 630 while the external displays seem to be driven by Nvidia adapter.

Edit: workaround found. Zwift does not like to start up on the Nvidia adapter for some reason when running on only laptop display. Can’t link but I wrote the workaround into another thread. Thread title is:

Zwift full crash at start after clicking “let’s go”, depends on external monitor configuration