Zwift and old laptop, hanging up.

vincesummerskRoxcBTr
vincesummerskRoxcBTr Posts: 1,090
in Indoor training and turbo forum
Zwift new newbie, with a smart trainer and old windows 7 laptop with ANT+ dongle, all seems to work fine, except it seems to hang up quite frequently.
Do other people get this or is it because of the age of the laptop?

Comments

  • rafletcher
    rafletcher Posts: 1,235
    Might be the rate at which your network (assuming wireless) can stream at. I ran Zwift on a 6 year old Dell Elite laptop ok. My WiFi runs at 40mbs.
  • vincesummerskRoxcBTr
    vincesummerskRoxcBTr Posts: 1,090
    rafletcher said:

    Might be the rate at which your network (assuming wireless) can stream at. I ran Zwift on a 6 year old Dell Elite laptop ok. My WiFi runs at 40mbs.

    Good point , I might try cable lan connection.
  • N0bodyOfTheGoat
    N0bodyOfTheGoat Posts: 6,057
    Laptop overheating? While Zwift is far from mind blowing detail visuals, it's not unheard of for the cooling system on laptops to deteriorate over time.
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  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,435
    I found I was getting problems due to stable router connection - the way my setup is I zwift in a spare room upstairs, and the router got moved so that it was behind a brick wall downstairs and I started getting lots of hang ups and drop outs. I moved the router so there was only a stud wall in between and it's been totally stable again since.

    I think what it was for me is that for e.g., streaming video you buffer ahead so small dropouts don't matter, but with Zwift it is relying on a constant connection.

    So could try looking into router positioning etc.

    You can also look into a PowerLink - basically creates a wired connection using your house electrical supply.

    I am using a pretty rubbish laptop - it's my work laptop and it is obviously not designed for gaming. The graphics settings are on low and it is very slow to start up, but once it is running, it runs pretty smoothly. I don't have a standalone GPU or anything which is supposedly one of the key performance drivers https://support.zwift.com/en_us/supported-devices-to-run-zwift-H1Cj9QbeB#/

    Part of the reason Zwift has pretty old looking graphics is that they want to make sure it is/remains accessible on a wide range of devices - they've stated as such. So it should work even on an old PC (notwithstanding the overheating issue mentioned above, although I'd have thought if that was serious it would close the game entirely).
  • vincesummerskRoxcBTr
    vincesummerskRoxcBTr Posts: 1,090
    I have tried it with a LAN cable and hang ups seem less but still occur, seemingly more when Zwift is busy!
  • pblakeney
    pblakeney Posts: 27,330
    vincesummerskRoxcBTr said:

    I have tried it with a LAN cable and hang ups seem less but still occur, seemingly more when Zwift is busy!

    The processor is possibly struggling.
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  • vincesummerskRoxcBTr
    vincesummerskRoxcBTr Posts: 1,090
    I think you are right, it is just about managing with the LAN connection!

    The processor is possibly struggling.

  • phreak
    phreak Posts: 2,953
    The minimum requirements are possibly OK for solo rides on quieter routes but group rides will be tough.

    I had repeated problems with a machine that was marginally better than the minimum specs, even with cooling pads, WiFi signal boosters and so on.

    A better laptop fixed it all.

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