Resolve Studio Crashes on Launch (Win10), USB dongle failure

EDIT: Solved! Scroll down to This post for the answer. Thanks Dwaine!

First, we are trying to install Resolve 16 on a brand new Windows 10 machine. We need to be using 16 for a variety of reasons, so please don't suggest upgrading to 17 at this time. We'll get there, but need to finish projects in 16. That said...

I just built a new Windows 10 PC and have installed Resolve Studio. We use USB dongles, and I took the dongle off our old Windows Resolve machine and put it on this one. Upon launch, Resolve crashes when it gets to "checking licenses" in the splash screen, and this is what Windows Event Viewer says:

Code: Select all

Level   Date and Time   Source   Event ID   Task Category
Error   1/18/2022 5:51:18 AM   Application Error   1000   (100)   "Faulting application name: Resolve.exe, version: 16.1.1.5, time stamp: 0x5db97774
Faulting module name: LIBEAY32.dll, version: 1.0.2.8, time stamp: 0x5cf5b686
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000003863
Faulting process id: 0x1efc
Faulting application start time: 0x01d80c72764f607f
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Resolve.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\LIBEAY32.dll
Report Id: a155a712-c8fe-4ce4-951e-9bdbcdd61518
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID: "

This happens with Resolve 16.1.1 and with the last version of v16, 16.2.8. Identical error.

Things I have tried:

• uninstalled Resolve 16.1.1, installed 16.2.8
• uninstalled Resolve Studio and Installed Resolve (Free) -- THIS WORKS FINE
• swapped the dongle for one from another Resolve machine, same failure
• Dongle plugged into USB 3.2 Gen1 Type A port
• Dongle plugged into USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A port
• Dongle plugged into USB 2.0 Port

USB drivers for the motherboard are all installed properly, and any device I plug in works fine. In fact, the first time you plug in one of the dongles, Windows notifies you that the USB Dongle Driver was installed successfully.

Windows is totally up to date. There's nothing installed on this machine except for the drivers for the motherboard, third party cards (RTX3060, Chelsio 40GB NIC, Decklink Mini Monitor), our SAN, and of course, Resolve Studio.

I'm at a loss at this point, because this is clearly an issue with the USB dongle, but not the dongle itself. Both of the ones I've tried work fine on another machine. And yes, they're legitimate, bought from Amazon and B&H years ago.

Our previous Windows Resolve machine was also running Windows 10 and had no issues with the dongle.

Clearly a machine specific issue then... to help you troubleshoot, support will almost certainly need you to capture logs and generate a system info file for your build, upload them to a file sharing site and then post the link here. Short of a full system reinstall its probably your best move. See the FAQ for details on capturing logs and sys nfo files.

I believe the problem is an incompatibility with the latest versions of Windows 10 and Resolve 16. Resolve 16 uses LIBEAY32.dll to check the dongle, and this is where it crashes. On a hunch I installed v17 and it works perfectly. Looking in the application directory, there is no LIBEAY32.dll file, so odds are this is the culprit.

An older Windows 10 installation probably supported it (had to have, since we were running it on the previous machine for a while). But in my experience Windows 10 != Windows 10 in that newer versions are significantly different enough sometimes that they're really like a different OS. Probably what we have has all the stuff prepping for Windows 11, which is different enough that it breaks this old dll.

I would like some confirmation of this if possible, from BMD. It's a bad situation for us, because we need to finish complex projects in 16 before we can upgrade, and now we're down a workstation until we're done with those projects.

Hmm, Microsoft usually supports enterprise customers by supporting older Win10 builds. My company was on the 1803 (early 2018) build until late 2020 or early 2021.

Which Win10 builds are your working workstations, and what's the Win10 build of the new one?

Although 1803 apparently did finally go EOL in mid-2021: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecy ... -servicing

1909 Enterprise doesn't go EOL until May 2022

[Dwaine Maggart]

In a File Explorer window, go to:

C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve

and run CaptureLogs

This will place a Resolve log file named similar to this on your Windows desktop: DaVinci-Resolve-logs-20181228_140434.zip (You may not see the .zip extension if your system is set to hide known extensions).

Then open Windows System Information and do a File - Save (Not a File Export), which will generate a .NFO file.

Place both those files on a file sharing site and provide links to the files here.

Hi Dwaine,

Presumably you mean with Resolve 16, to recreate the crash, right?

Just to confirm - in my last post, Resolve 17 is working, and it seems the main difference is that the LIBEAY32.dll is not present in Resolve 17's application directory like it is in v16.

*Should* version 16.1.1 or 16.2.8 work with the latest, most up to date version of Windows 10?

[Dwaine Maggart]

Yes, send a log from whatever is not working. If 16 and 17 are on the same system, the log should still contain what i'd like to see. We keep 5 of the last good logs and 5 of the last 5 crash logs. So as long as you haven't started Resolve too many times since a crash, the data should be there.

I'm not aware of a problem with Resolve 16 on the latest Window 10, but then again, probably not much testing.

But we've made lots of changes in how the GPU's are accessed, and I would guess it's something in that area. Which the logs and an NFO file might indicate.

Hi Dwaine,

The files are here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p4eogwa6cbudc ... o.zip?dl=0

That said, I would be very surprised if this has anything to do with the GPU. I say this because the crash occurs in Resolve 16.1.1 and 16.2.8 STUDIO only, and only with a USB dongle. The free version of Resolve 16 works fine, and launching 16 Studio without the dongle installed brings up the "enter activation key or insert dongle" message in the splash screen without crashing.

The crash occurs in checking the dongle, so unless the GPU is somehow involved in that process, it seems unlikely that the GPU is the problem.

The file "LIBEAY32.dll" is where Resolve.exe is crashing, and that's an encryption library. That library is not present (as far as I can tell) in Resolve 17, so it seem you guys are checking the dongle in a different way in v17, which would explain why it's working in the newer version but not v16.

[Dwaine Maggart]

Right you are. I updated a Windows 10 system to 21H2, and had the same issue.

Attached is a updated version of the file that works. Unzip the attached file and replace the file in C:\Program Files\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve with this one.

And yes, it appears that Resolve 17 is no longer using that file. I don't know when the actual change happened. Probably with 17.0, but I'm not sure about that.

And there is probably a specific Windows version where the original file stops working, and I also don't have that info.

Amazing! Thanks. I'll give that a try this afternoon.

It works! Thanks for the solution, Dwaine!