Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Zwift freezing/crashing

Hello Zwifters!
I’m having a bit of a nightmare…
I’ve been using Zwift for about 6 weeks and it’s been great. But over the last week it’s started crashing almost every ride, I haven’t changed anything - same laptop, same turbo, same ANT+ dongle, same WiFi network…everything.
I got 20ishK into a ride last night and it crashed and about 17 this morning and the same thing.
I can’t work out why at all, and as you can imagine I’m getting very little sympathy at home! It’s a real first wild issue but I’m sure you chaps at least will understand how annoying it is!
Any ideas?

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

Add new comment

17 comments

Avatar
FlyingPenguin | 5 years ago
1 like

So, after riding  stage 4 of the TdZ today, it seems they have disabled  some features during group rides (rankings, chat), presumably to lessen server load.

Worth trying again and seeing if you have better luck?  Seemed pretty stable to me.

Avatar
Sniffer replied to FlyingPenguin | 5 years ago
0 likes

FlyingPenguin wrote:

So, after riding  stage 4 of the TdZ today, it seems they have disabled  some features during group rides (rankings, chat), presumably to lessen server load.

Worth trying again and seeing if you have better luck?  Seemed pretty stable to me.

Noticed the ranking had gone. Kind of missed it last night.

 

Avatar
arckuk | 5 years ago
3 likes

In normal use, Zwift communicates the position of the nearest 200(?) riders, which may be rendered on your device's screen. This communication is not at a huge data rate - certainly not enough to overload the average broadband connection. When less than great home wi-fi is incorporated into the mix, there may be additional bandwidth resctrictions and/or latency between that data being sent and the user receiving it. Bear in mind that the user also communicates their power, heart rate, cadence, position on track?, speed(?) info back to Zwift, who then take this data and send it out to whoever has you within their 200 rider radius. ANT+/bluetooth interference and drop outs won't help.

I don't think the raw number crunching of this user information is actually hugely computationally expensive, and Zwift will be able to spin up multiple servers very rapidly to cope with changes in load. The distribution of this information over a variety of networks may well be more of an issue.

I don't know what happens when rider density is really high, as in these multi-thousand user start events, but I guess you might get information on more than the default number of nearest users if they're really close.

For the CPU and graphics card of the user's device, rendering all these other users will cause more load, and result in a drop in frame rate. Combine this with lags between data communicated to and from the user that could result from increased local and remote processing requirements, and systems that will normally be just about usable are most likely to drop into the unusable territory.

The majority of users have a good experience in these events, it's just that this sort of issue is most likely to raise its head in this type of event. In some cases it may be Zwift's issue, most of the time I think users are hitting a limitation of their setup.

Basically, I think it's more likely you'll see these slowdowns if your CPU, GPU, Wifi, broadband or ANT+/Bluetooth signal is less than optimal. The problem for many is identifying which one is the limiting factor. Maybe Zwift could help by providing some sort of testing program, which would help point the way, until then, there's https://zwiftalizer.com/ which is the best way to analyse log files to see if there's anything obvious.

Avatar
CXR94Di2 | 5 years ago
0 likes

Set graphics to 720p and ensure good internet connection.  Ive had less issues now I use mobile data link at 60mb connection speed.  I have a decent mid range pc with plenty of ram and good graphics, well enough to run 1080p and still be able to race in TDZ.  I think there were 4000 riders on my particular event plus normal zwift users. Ive seen 10,000 users at once but dont get full crashes, just short period dropouts and it always returns without losing ride/race.

Avatar
number9dream | 5 years ago
0 likes

For these recent tour stages i've found the same on wi-fi but no problems with a wired connection. Seems to be a widely held view on the forums too. Also switching to the low graphics setting when doing a massive group ride seems to help.

Avatar
Rapha Nadal | 5 years ago
1 like

Ah, I had issues last night with a very juddery picture and slow to update the images on the screen - ran laptop through tv intially & then just on laptop but same resuts.  I thought it was just our crappy Sky broadband!

Avatar
muhasib | 5 years ago
5 likes

I thought people did indoor cycling as they wouldnt experience freezing or the chance of crashing?

Avatar
FlyingPenguin | 5 years ago
1 like

Actually, another possibility, if it's properly crashing rather than just glitching (e.g. riders dissappearing, wrong world etc), it might be worth trying to turn down the graphics settings.  I can't imagine that it's optimised for the 2-3,000 rider groups that have been seen lately.

 

I suspect that there will be a number of lessons to be learned from the current tour!

Avatar
Team EPO | 5 years ago
1 like

One thing I have found that has helped with the crashes is using a router that allows you to priotise devices as I compete at home with avid streamers

Avatar
bfslxo replied to Team EPO | 5 years ago
1 like

Team EPO wrote:

One thing I have found that has helped with the crashes is using a router that allows you to priotise devices as I compete at home with avid streamers

Can I plead ignorance & enquire how would I go about doing that?

Avatar
slowclimb | 5 years ago
1 like

Hmmm...maybe it’s not just me then 

if it is a Zwift problem they need to get their capacity sorted,   Minimum 12,000+ riders all at £13 a month is a lot of money and we deserve a reliable service at least!

Avatar
pastyfacepaddy | 5 years ago
0 likes

Rode 21miles using the Zwift Windows app on Windows 8.1 (yes I know) on Monday night and no problems. Companion app on Android A3 did refuse to show the map although everything else worked fine i.e. dashboard, zwifters etc.

Turbo and pc are in the conservatory and running over wi-fi.

 

Avatar
Jetmans Dad replied to pastyfacepaddy | 5 years ago
0 likes

pastyfacepaddy wrote:

Companion app on Android A3 did refuse to show the map although everything else worked fine i.e. dashboard, zwifters etc.

There are some issues on the Companion app maps when using the new worlds (Innsbruck and New York). My companion app did exactly that on stage 2 of the Tour de Zwift (NYC) and when I posted to the Zwift forums about it, it appears it is quite a widespread issue. 

I was avised to update the app to the latest version (which it already was) and make sure everything was properly closed and reopened, but made no difference when I did a short ride in NYC last week. 

Will be interesting to see whether there is a map in Innsbruck this evening for stage 7. 

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to Jetmans Dad | 5 years ago
0 likes

Jetmans Dad wrote:

pastyfacepaddy wrote:

Companion app on Android A3 did refuse to show the map although everything else worked fine i.e. dashboard, zwifters etc.

There are some issues on the Companion app maps when using the new worlds (Innsbruck and New York). My companion app did exactly that on stage 2 of the Tour de Zwift (NYC) and when I posted to the Zwift forums about it, it appears it is quite a widespread issue. 

I was avised to update the app to the latest version (which it already was) and make sure everything was properly closed and reopened, but made no difference when I did a short ride in NYC last week. 

Will be interesting to see whether there is a map in Innsbruck this evening for stage 7. 

FWIW just done stage 7 and the map is missing again on the companion app - Samsung J5/6 (on Android 7.1.1), Zwift Companion App v 3.0.3 (527). It's been a pain for a while, no indication/confirmation of reproducing it from Zwift yet that I know of.

Avatar
dave atkinson | 5 years ago
0 likes

there was over 12,000 concurrent users on there the other night which is the most i've ever seen. I was in a race and had issues with everyone else in the race disappearing from time to time, which didn't exactly help with staying in a group. didn't crash though.

Avatar
bfslxo | 5 years ago
0 likes

Same here, last few rides have all frozen & crashed & lost.

I run mine through the companion app on a laptop & galaxy S9 & the companion app is shutting down & restarting literally every 30 secs.

I just assumed it was me & am looking into going for the Ant+ dongle setup as the general consensus seems it’s a more reliable connection.

1st world problems indeed but as my weekend bike & turbo bike are one in the same & my missus allows me to leave the turbo setup in the living room during the week,

I am not going to go cycling out during the evenings then spend an hour cleaning it to use on the turbo next time. The least I can do is play ball & keep the bike clean whilst it’s in the house.

Avatar
FlyingPenguin | 5 years ago
0 likes

Were you riding the Tour de Zwift or seeing a lot of Tour riders?  It seems (based on the Zwift forums) that they have broken records for simultaneous users several times in the last week and it's putting a bit of a strain on the whole thing.

 

On Apple TV it self-limits to displaying 100 riders for performance reasons, but I don't believe that limit is imposed on other device types, so this might be the problem if everything else is unchanged, given it only started a week ago (when the Tour started).

 

Latest Comments