Seeking Help with Plugin Crashes in Ableton Live 12.0.2 (Kickzilla and Serum) on Windows 11 Pro

[Blacksool]

Hello everyone,

I'm experiencing crashes with certain VST plugins (Kickzilla and Serum) in Ableton Live 12.0.2 on my Windows 11 Pro system. I'm hoping someone here might have encountered similar issues or knows of a solution.

System Details:

Operating System: Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3527
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: 32 GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
Graphics Driver Version: 522.44
DAW: Ableton Live 12.0.2

Problem Description:

Plugins Affected: Kickzilla (VST3) and Serum
Issue: Both plugins cause Ableton Live to crash immediately after being added to a MIDI track, regardless of whether the project is empty or not. This issue does not occur in another DAW I tested on the same system.

Error Message in Event Viewer:

Faulting application name: Ableton Live 12 Suite.exe, version: 1.0.0.1, timestamp: 0x66163aa1
Faulting module name: nvwgf2umx.dll, version: 31.0.15.5244, timestamp: 0x6639f695
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000001c1c89
Faulting process ID: 0x0x9D00
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DAA516989660AC
Faulting application path: C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 12 Suite\Program\Ableton Live 12 Suite.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_de8e1115ac61e38a\nvwgf2umx.dll
Report ID: 231a0c97-f4b0-49b9-bae2-93b34802df51

Steps Taken:

Driver Update: Updated NVIDIA drivers from 522.22 to 522.44 with no improvement.
Driver Removal and Reinstallation: Used Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to completely remove the NVIDIA driver. With no driver installed, the plugins worked without issues. Reinstalling driver 522.44 caused the problem to return.
Alternative DAW: Both Kickzilla and Serum work perfectly in another DAW on the same system.
Plugin Version: Tried different versions of Kickzilla (1.0.3 and 1.1.0) with no success.
Contacted Developers: Reported the issue to the plugin developers and received a suggestion to contact Ableton support.

I suspect the issue might be related to Direct 2D. Has anyone else experienced similar issues with these or other plugins in Ableton Live 12.0.2 on a similar setup? Any tips or solutions regarding the nvwgf2umx.dll error would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your help!

[H20nly]

That .dll file is for an NVidia. There’s been lots of folks with issues with the NVidia software and DAWs over the years. You can try 2 things that I can think of…

1. Switch to onboard graphics from your BIOS to bypass the NVidia altogether - either permanently or as a test to confirm it’s the culprit

2. Remove all NVidia software and install a basic driver package, without all the extra bloatware.*
*It’s probably safe to append that dll with .old to disable it and let the basic driver reinstall or replace it

Hope this helps