Rhino 8 crashes my system as soon as I open it

[Hussain1 (Hussain)]

Hello,

I looked for a similar thread but the last one was a few months ago that was solved by removing plugins.

When I open rhino my system hangs and nothing works. I need force shutdown my laptop by holding the power button and then restarting the system.

I am able to start rhino in safe mode. Following is the information I get when I use the system info command:

Rhino 8 SR32 2026-6-9 (Rhino 8, 8.32.26160.13001, Git hash:master @ 2804b73b0f4b4feba10cb8b0b07c18fce290de93)
License type: Educational, build 2026-06-09
License details: Cloud Zoo

Windows 11 (10.0.26200 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 31GB)
.NET 8.0.14

Computer platform: LAPTOP - Unplugged [23% battery remaining] ~25 minutes left

Non-hybrid graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: Intel(R) Graphics (Intel) Memory: 2GB, Driver date: 1-26-2026 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: (null)

Integrated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)

• Windows Main Display is laptop’s integrated screen or built-in port

Secondary graphics devices.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU (NVidia) Memory: 12GB, Driver date: 6-11-2026 (M-D-Y).

Integrated accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)

• This device is not being used

ATTENTION:
Safe Mode is enabled. Graphics device usage and OpenGL information cannot be collected.

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: On
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On (but disabled due to other settings)
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL (null) (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: Unknown
Render version: (null)
Shading Language: (null)
Driver Date: 6-11-2026
Driver Version: 32.0.16.1062
Maximum Texture size: n/a
Z-Buffer depth: n/a
Maximum Viewport size: 16777472 x 16777216
Total Video Memory: 12227 MB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.32.26160.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.32.26160.13001

I have disabled all plugins when on safe mode and tried opening it but that did not work as well.

I have updated all my drivers, windows is up to date, rhino is updated as well.

Not sure what else to try.

[Japhy]

@Hussain1

Primary display and OpenGL: Intel(R) Graphics (Intel) Memory: 2GB, Driver date: 1-26-2026 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: (null)

Looks like your OpenGL is set to the intel, that needs to be on the nvidia.

Soooo, you bought a laptop with hybrid graphics and rhino doesn't run right. READ THIS

Hybrid graphics laptops are more and more common if you buy a consumer grade machine. (I recommend buying a mobile workstation for professional modeling but these hybrid machines are quite prevalent in the consumer market, especially for students.) They tend to generate a TON of tech support here because of the way they are set up from the factory. Hybrid systems are built with 2 graphics processors. A low power graphics chip (typically Intel HD or UHD) and a high power graphics card. However…

[Hussain1 (Hussain)]

Thank you so much for your response!

I did read and follow that guide before posting. I had set my graphics for rhino to my Nvidia gpu at high performance and still crashed.

I recently changed it to the intel graphics card and it now works properly. There is either an issue with my hardware or the nvidia driver needs a full reinstall. Will do that over the weekend and see how it goes.

[jesterking]

@Hussain1

or the nvidia driver needs a full reinstall

I would start with that, do a clean install of the driver. Start the driver installer, go to custom and check the box for clean installation.

can exercise your GPU quite a bit? I would expect them also to cause system hangs if it is something in the driver or hardware. Maybe try Blender, load a scene and switch to Cycles with your GPU as render device. If that works without hanging your system then I don’t know what could be the issue.

[Hussain1 (Hussain)]

I did a clean install of the driver and everything has started working. Thank you all for the responses and support.

[jesterking]

This may happen again especially after a Windows update. It is known that the update procedure messes with already installed driver installations. If you find in the future again Rhino suddenly starting crashing or not opening or your system being suddenly instable you should always go for a gpu driver clean install.