KiCad crashes when opening PCB

Layout
1

Sometimes, when I open a KiCad project and then open the PCB editor, KiCad closes without any message. This seems to happen only when I have rebooted my machine and start KiCad for the first time.

It’s not dramatic - you just restart KiCad.

I am afraid this isn’t really helpful bug report, I will try to reproduce it.

Does anyone else see this?

Application: KiCad PCB Editor x64 on x64

Version: 9.0.6, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.8
FreeType 2.13.3
HarfBuzz 10.2.0
FontConfig 2.15.0
libcurl/8.13.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1

Platform: Windows 11 (build 26100), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
OpenGL: ATI Technologies Inc., AMD Radeon RX 6600, 4.6.0 Compatibility Profile Context 25.3.1.250220

Build Info:
Date: Oct 30 2025 19:36:12
wxWidgets: 3.2.8 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.88.0
OCC: 7.9.1
Curl: 8.13.0-DEV
ngspice: 45.2
Compiler: Visual C++ 1944 without C++ ABI
KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale:
Lang: en_GB
Enc: UTF-8
Num: 1,234.5
Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)

2

I do not experience crashes on first startup. But I do notice that after a fresh start the “warp mouse cursor on zoom” selects the wrong screen center every now and then. This is in KiCad V8.0.9 and when I get around to installing KiCad V9 I intend to test this further and maybe create a bug report for it.

3

On my installation (currently also v9.0.6.) I don’t see such a behaviour.

As you are running kicad on Win11 you might activate the crash report: global Preferences–>Data collection–>checkbox “agree to anonymous report”.

If you can recreate a reproduction case that would also helpful.

In the past such issues sometimes where triggered due to individual circumstances:

  • kicad installation on network
  • kicad libraries on network/cloud
  • enabled/disabled gitlab support
  • non-standard display setup (more than 34 monitors, display resolution > 12000x9000 pixels)
  • …

so every additional information about unusual setting/equipement may help.

4

OK I’ll enable the crash report.

Compared to other (managed corporate) setups I have to cope with this is my own and rather simple: KiCad and all libraries on my local HDs, just one 32” monitor. Really nothing fancy I would be aware of.