Windows 8.1: Most Metro Apps crash immediately at launch

[johnpombrio]

Hi friends,

Same problem here. I just noticed in Device Manager that I have 2 graphic cards installed on my laptop. One is Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000, and the other is NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE. So the problem may relate to these 2 operating simultaneously. I have tried to uninstall the Intel(R) driver several times to no avail. After uninstalling and restarting the laptop, it shows up again in Device Manager!!! Even Windows Update gives me updates for both of them...

How should I delete one of them? At least the Intel one? Thank you...

Reaspirau, Welcome to the Windows 8 forum!

I seriously doubt that having the two graphics engines showing up in the device manager will have any effect on the apps crashing to the desktop. Check your BIOS settings to see if you can select the NVidia card as your primary driver. Do not have any illusions that this will fix the apps crashing to the desktop tho.

 

[Steve06]

Reaspirau, since one suspicion is that the crashes are related to Intel HD onboard graphics, it would be an interesting experiment if you could disable the Intel graphics from your BIOS and only operate through the nvidia. Then you could uninstall and reinstall the apps and check if they do not break again. This would help us narrow down the issue to specific hardware.

 

[johnpombrio]

Steve, Really? I had not heard that apps crashing to desktop might be hardware related in any post anywhere. Could you give me another source besides this site?

 

[Steve06]

See this bugfix Microsoft issued a few days ago and that I reported in this thread: Skype Windows Store app crashes in Windows 8.1 and in Windows Server 2012 R2
It describes and addresses exactly the symptoms we have in connection with Intel HD 3000 hardware. Maybe Win 8.1 is not perfectly compatible to Intel graphics yet - although it is hard to believe given that these must be the most widespread graphics chips there are.

 

[Abi79]

In my case, it appears that my problem (apps crashing on their startup) was caused by having Stardock's Decor8 installed. I removed it for an unrelated reason: after I noticed that Windows Explorer and the Task Manager were eating too much CPU, and then followed with a Process Monitor check. After uninstalling Decor8 and restarting, all the apps that were crashing have stopped crashing (without me having to reinstall them, and with no previous changes to anything of importance).

Of note could be, though I am not sure, that Decor8 was running during the upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1

 

[louise33]

I had the same problem. As suggested, I uninstalled the broken apps, which was pretty much all of them, and reinstalled. So far, everything works, but then again, tomorrow is a new day.

Rockhound, thanks. That fixed my issues too. My weather app now works fine. So today I got sleep to come back and my apps to run. I will call this a victory and go back to my normal Sunday routine, sleeping.

One thing to point out is that all of these issues for me have something to do with networking. Something about networks and Win8.1 is fishy.

ive found the worst offenders to be any and all of the you tube appa and the natl geog videos. all tht ocket substitutes such as pouch also open and disappear in a minute.

might it help to assign specific app for streamiing? if so, what might some good ones be?

 

[Wynona]

I use Intel's java-based automatic driver check tool to make sure I have the most recent version according to them.

Aha! So that's what Java has to do with searching for and installing chipset updates!

Thanks for inadvertently helping me understand, Steve!

 

[louise33]

Is anyone having issues with the Photos app? It opens but it says there are no photos.

Where do you have your photos stored? I have mine stored on the SD card I installed. I've found that very few of the photo apps will even consider looking on the SD card. There is an Adobe Photoshop type app which does look on the SD card and will present the photos. I think I found one other but am not which one it was since so many of my apps don't work.

 

[johnpombrio]

I have found that disabling IPv6 in the Ethernet properties is a surefire way of making all the Metro apps crash to the desktop. In trying to fix my sleep problems, I have have had plenty of practice as I had to disable Homegroup and IPv6 to get computers to sleep.

The real question is, once the apps have been uninstalled and reinstalled without IPv6 enabled, do they STAY working? I will report in a few day to see if they do.

 

[Sora]

Hi Guys,

I have the same problem as well, Apps like Facebook, Dropbox, Box, Sky News, BBC News, Instagram Explorer etc crash when I am trying to start them, which send me back to the start menu. This problem has bothered me for nearly 2 weeks, soon after I upgraded to windows 8.1. My hardware is as following

Notebook model: HP Envy 15 j012-tx
CPU: Intel Core i7 4702MQ@2.2GHz
Graphic card: Intel HD4600 + nVidia GT750M
Other Hardware: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro (USB Sound card), 1366x768 monitor with a HDMI to VGA adapters(Same resolution as my notebook monitor), Connected to TP-Link Router

PS: Microsoft Apps and HP pre-installed apps are working fine but all 3rd party app crashes

I install Facebook immediatlely after i upgraded to Windows 8.1, it was fine but not for now

I dont know if it is related to the problem, I changed my Display Language from English to Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong SAR) when i was still in Win8, in this environment i installed some apps which crashes now, like Sky News, BBC News, Dropbox, Box

I have tried every single solution on this thread except re installing the windows. Also, I am with the latest Driver i can get.

 

[johnpombrio]

Sora, welcome to the Win8 forums. This is a really hard problem to pin down. read through all the posts here to see if there is something that may help. Only a couple of people think it may be hardware related so do not spend much time on checking out the hardware. So far, the only fix that works for most is to right click on the crashing apps, uninstall them, go to the store and reinstall them. That sometimes fixes them for good (or not!) It may also have something to do with the computer sleeping, Homegroup, and the network adapter settings but no real proof so far, just a hunch.

For now, try to uninstall and reinstall the apps. and keep your fingers crossed.

 

[it2009yashar]

I have this problem too
these apps not working people, twitter, weather, sport and calender

 

[Liam1694u]

I too have been having the same problem since upgrading to 8.1. Most of the natively installed metro apps don't work. The graphic splash screen pops up for a split second, and then I'm bumped back to desktop mode. Apps visible in sidebar, but don't open.

This includes some 3rd party apps like Skype. "Store" and "Photos" are the only 2 Apps that DO WORK. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail. I also disabled my firewall, but that didn't work either. At first I thought it was only with the native apps, but I just installed the Netflix App, and it doesn't work either. This is piddling me off. Everything worked under 8.0.

Attempted fixes:
1: disabled firewall
2: undated graphics drivers
3: uninstalled/reinstalled apps
4. ran Microsoft App Troubleshooter
5. ran Windows update
..and a few other random little things


nothing works.

 

[Liam1694u]

I too have been having the same problem since upgrading to 8.1. Most of the natively installed metro apps don't work. The graphic splash screen pops up for a split second, and then I'm bumped back to desktop mode. Apps visible in sidebar, but don't open.

This includes some 3rd party apps like Skype. "Store" and "Photos" are the only 2 Apps that DO WORK. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail. I also disabled my firewall, but that didn't work either. At first I thought it was only with the native apps, but I just installed the Netflix App, and it doesn't work either. This is piddling me off. Everything worked under 8.0.

Attempted fixes:
1: disabled firewall
2: undated graphics drivers
3: uninstalled/reinstalled apps
4. ran Microsoft App Troubleshooter
5. ran Windows update
..and a few other random little things


nothing works.

also, this is the only Windows 8.(anything) device on my home network.

 

[johnpombrio]

Liam, Welcome to EightForums! I wish I had an answer for you. After enabling HomeGroup again, I would have the same issues as you, crash to desktop (but NOT listed in the task switcher!). But so far, I have recovered them by logging into my Windows Live account, go to the store, bring mouse to the top of the screen and RIGHT clicking. Then I can see "your apps". After I uninstall all of the broken apps on the start screen, I reinstall them from the store. MOST of them work, but some like NewEgg and Kindle still crash. I too have checked to see if the apps are enabled in the Windows Firewall (most are added when they are installed).

 

[Liam1694u]

Liam, Welcome to EightForums! I wish I had an answer for you. After enabling HomeGroup again, I would have the same issues as you, crash to desktop (but NOT listed in the task switcher!). But so far, I have recovered them by logging into my Windows Live account, go to the store, bring mouse to the top of the screen and RIGHT clicking. Then I can see "your apps". After I uninstall all of the broken apps, I reinstall them. MOST of them work, but some like NewEgg and Kindle still crash. I too have checked to see if the apps are enabled in the Windows Firewall (most are added when they are installed).

the funny thing is when I go to "your apps" in the App Store there is no option to uninstall. Now I know I can uninstall from the metro screen. But your post implied that I could uninstall from within the store. It shows the list of all my apps. Some of them say "installed" and some say "Not Installed" after the icon. Regardless of which type of app I right-click on, I only get two options; [clear] and [install]. There is no [uninstall] option. should there be?

 

[KevinM1]

I have the same problem, but only with the Food & Drink app, and only intermittently. And that's in addition to my live tile update problem. From my (limited and anecdotal) experience, it seems like the Microsoft apps are the buggiest of the bunch, as 3rd party apps (Amazon, Facebook, the Dell Store) work flawlessly for me.

 

[KevinM1]

Another thing to note is that the Bing Weather app for Windows Phone 8 is also buggy with its live tile (it's a widespread problem across handsets). Since WP8 apps and Modern apps share at least part of their code base with one another, I'm leaning towards all of these Modern app issues being a software problem rather than a hardware problem.

I hope they address it soon, as the entire point of the Modern UI is to have simple apps that work, with live tiles that are actually live. I really like it when it works, so stability on that front would be most welcome.

 

[johnpombrio]

Kevin, excpt for a couple of apps that do not work (like Newegg which worked just until a 3-4 days ago), the rest of the apps work fine for me, including the weather app which updates fine. Like the sleep issue, this is NOT A WIDESPREAD PROBLEM or news sites would be reporting it immediately. For instance, a lot of gamers were noticing a laggy mouse problem after the 8.1 update and that has been on a ton of websites. MS did a patch today for it. Don't expect a patch to fix this, it may happen but more likely we will need a driver change or a setting that is screwed up. Perhaps the only solution will be a new, cold install but I hope not!

 

[PhyllisColeman]

a lot of similar problems are pertaining towards the same issue but still there is no sure shot solution for this has been suggested .. and i am too eager to know an apt answer