Big Box Crashing in Version 13.23? Here’s What You Need to Know

[uberrr]

On 8/23/2025 at 4:23 PM, faeran said:

Update to the beta and see if it helps. I hope you mean when you say you changed to WMP, you mean Windows Media Player.

After the update, if you are still experiencing the issue, follow the steps to provide an Event Viewer .NET crash log.

Can you update to the beta and see if that helps in your situation. If not, send us another Event Viewer log, however, the logs you sent is missing the actual .NET error log (looks like you sent the other 2 only), so don't forget to include the .NET error crash report which should be very near these other 2.

I updated to the beta and BigBox still won't launch. And yes, I meant Windows Media Player. I can't seem to find a relevant entry on event viewer regarding this issue though, I don't think it's being logged for some reason. (Maybe because I have to manually terminate bigbox and an error doesn't pop up)

[faeran]

1 hour ago, uberrr said:

I updated to the beta and BigBox still won't launch. And yes, I meant Windows Media Player. I can't seem to find a relevant entry on event viewer regarding this issue though, I don't think it's being logged for some reason. (Maybe because I have to manually terminate bigbox and an error doesn't pop up)

Sounds like a different issue. One troubleshooting step you can take is use the 13.24 beta 1 installer, most likely found under your LaunchBox\Updates folder, and install a different copy of LaunchBox in some other temp location. Load it up with a few games and see if Big Box works for you. That will determine whether you have an application issue or a Data config issue.

[Heartless1Riku]

I am having a similar issue with launchbox that goes away if I remove the music folder from the lb root. When browsing and selecting titles with auto play music enabled in launchbox it will crash every time after going through a few titles with noticeable audio stutter and crackling when the music first kicks in. I have wmp enabled but I think the crash has more to do with music playback being bugged. Also effects big box as I am guessing the custom menu sounds are creating the same audio playback issue and crashing the system.

Edit: To add to this I have noticed that platform videos are stuttering in Big Box mode which ruins the subtle animations of the videos when cycling though platforms. I have attached videos comparing 18.12 (Top Video) and 18.24 (Bottom Video) with 18.24 displaying stuttering on the startup video along with platform videos that does not go away regardless if using WMP or FFmpeg. Same stuttering is present when cycling through games which removes transition effects when scrolling through games and letting the videos play.

Edited August 27 by Heartless1Riku

[N1ghtkawk]

Confirmed, the beta fixed my issue.

RTX 3060.

Thanks so much guys, love the screensaver, especially in Theatre mode!!!

 

Oh, and switching to WMP did not resolve the issue for me. And I made sure it was there and could run. Dot 24 beta is the way.

Edited August 27 by N1ghtkawk

[ItsInmansFault]

I installed the beta last night and the crashes stopped for a short time, and then started again the next time I tried to change the theme. The main time I experience crashes is when browsing themes or changing a theme. Just found this forum while at work so I can't provide any logs, but can later today if necessary. System specs below:

Dell XPS 15
i9-12900hk
32gb DDR4
rtx3050ti 4gb gddr6

Edited August 28 by ItsInmansFault

[trueanimus]

On 8/23/2025 at 1:14 PM, uberrr said:

Hello,

My video playback is set to WMP in the BigBoxSettings.xml file. I have removed my startup video and don't use background music, but when I try to launch BigBox it just never starts, no error or anything. I've left it alone for a few hours but it still wont start. In order to get back into LB I have to open task manager and end BigBox manually

same was happening to me but im running an RTX 3060 card and tried the new beta, fixed the issue of launching bigbox, but thestartup videos no longer play.

[PiperCalls]

Just updated from 13.19 to 13.23 and LB is fine but BB will not launch...getting the splash logo & have to close BB in task manager. Troubleshooting steps tried...

- removed BB startup video

- manually changed to Default theme in BigBoxSettings.xml

- manually changed BigBoxSettings.xml video playback engine to WMP

- updated to beta

...still a no-go, just sticks on BB logo and have to task mgr kill it.

One weird thing I saw after updating was the BigBoxSettings.xml still had VLC as the default video engine...thought it was de-listed?

Specs:

i7-11th gen

RTX3070

32GB

LB at C:\Launchbox (SSD)

...gonna revert back to 13.19, restore a backup & pray now...

[faeran]

On 8/30/2025 at 2:06 AM, PiperCalls said:

Just updated from 13.19 to 13.23 and LB is fine but BB will not launch...getting the splash logo & have to close BB in task manager. Troubleshooting steps tried...

- removed BB startup video

- manually changed to Default theme in BigBoxSettings.xml

- manually changed BigBoxSettings.xml video playback engine to WMP

- updated to beta

...still a no-go, just sticks on BB logo and have to task mgr kill it.

One weird thing I saw after updating was the BigBoxSettings.xml still had VLC as the default video engine...thought it was de-listed?

Specs:

i7-11th gen

RTX3070

32GB

LB at C:\Launchbox (SSD)

...gonna revert back to 13.19, restore a backup & pray now...

Did you update to 13.24 beta 1, that would most likely fix that for you since it contains a specific fix for people on 30 series GPUs.

[PiperCalls]

Hi, yes I tried 13.24b it was still hanging at the BB logo. I reverted back to 13.19 & did a db backup & all good. The only thing I can think of on the beta is I did not put the startup video back in to try it. So I'm not sure if any xml calls that video.

[EvoluZion3]

I have an RTX3090, confirmed same issue with BigBox 13.23 (would crash to desktop before playing startup video), and confirmed the 13.24beta has fixed it with no other changes required. Thanks for the fix guys!

[drmalouf]

The new update has been causing crashes for me as well. I do use startup videos and background music on my setup, but the crashing honestly seems to be pretty random when browsing titles. When browsing games, the background music will sometimes stutter and Bigbox temporarily freezes, and this is sometimes followed up with a crash. I switched back to Windows Media Player for video playback, so it didn't 100% fix the issue, but certainly reduced the amount of crashes I've been getting. This crash was also on the newest beta release.

My setup is on a Lenovo ThinkCentre M93P Tiny with 8GB of RAM. The CPU is a Intel i7 4570T and uses integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 instead of a dedicated GPU. If any more information is needed to help fix the crashes please let me know and I'll see what I can do to help.

Thank you!

crash.evtx

Edited Sunday at 04:10 PM by drmalouf
Text format issue

[trueanimus]

BTW   Update for the Authors...   Had another crash last night in windows 10 while loading a dosbox game from launchbox... got the BSoD and something about a corrupted kernal (may have been due to DosBox) but i thought i should mention it

[Gaming.Zone]

The stability of LaunchBox-13.24-beta-1 is better for me than LaunchBox-13.23 but I am experiencing more issues with these builds then I did with any of the 13.23 beta builds.

I have a Windows 11 Machine with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060.  Currently set to FFMPEG.

I am getting a lot of complete Launchbox crashes on my machine while doing the following:

1. Manually clicking games too quickly in a Platform list. (Auto play is off for Music and Videos)

2. Editing a game from a playlist.

3. Moving from Playlist to playlist too quickly.

My build is not that large at the moment. It has a NES collection and a few other smaller platforms. ~1000 games at the moment.

In the Web world I would record a JAM.dev file for you and send your way.  Is there anything specific I could grab to help devs diagnose.

Is it possible I am experiencing echo effects of videos loading in the display window even if auto play is off?

I would love to help diagnose and help this to get resolved.  Please let me know what I can do to help.

[jestermgee]

So I was also having the issue where BB would start to launch but would seem to just crash to desktop when trying to load the actual browser after the launch video. BB would still be running in memory but completely gone from view. 

I was running 13.22 for months without any issues other than maybe an occasional crash from a dodgy video file but after updating to 13.23 I started having this startup crash however not all the time, sometimes it would launch in and work just fine but then it would sometimes crash out in the menu when switching to a certain game so seems to be video related. 

Have updated to thee new Beta after finding this thread and so far it seems fine, launches into BB correctly now and will leave the attract mode running for a while as that is usually when I find it has crashed after some hours. 

For reference I have a mini AIO PC with integrated Intel graphics so not the best video system and not an affected 30 series but it works for everything it is needed for. Running on Win11, dedicated machine, using WMP video mode.

Edited yesterday at 01:45 AM by jestermgee