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peter3km
Newcomer
October 27, 2025
Question

Zoom freezes after any meeting is started

  • October 27, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 159 views

Zoom was working before an update. Now on a user's laptop, after the update, anytime we open a zoom meeting/start a zoom meeting, it will freeze or crash after the camera begins to show a preview. Zoom will sometimes return after a minute or so.

I have tried:

  • Checked Windows System updates
  • Checked  driver updates for Camera - installed latest from laptop manufacturer's website
  • Checked Wi-Fi speed and signal.
  • Uninstalled/reinstalled the latest version as of last week
  • Checked Camera permissions in Windows for the Zoom app

I am at a loss for what else to try! It looks to have to do something when the meeting is in the pre-start stage before the meeting is actually created. 

2 replies

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Newcomer
caro79
Newcomer
October 28, 2025

I have same problem this past while. Zoom freezes, screen fogs over, and I'm left in limbo not able to leave the meeting and log back in or continue. I just have to close the window. Then when I join the meeting again I appear twice in the gallery. I.e. I'm still in the meeting from the first time I joined. And I'm still frozen in limbo. This is happening more  and more frequently

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New Member
pjana
New Member
August 14, 2026

I have the same problem the past 2 months. I have tried uninstall, reinstall  a few times. 

 

WinDbg identified the immediate hang mechanism:

  • Zoom’s main UI thread was blocked in SendMessageTimeout.
  • The stack passed through Windows Accessibility (oleacc.dll) and COM (combase.dll, rpcrt4.dll).
  • The Zoom components involved were zVideoUI.dll, UIBase.dll, and DuiLib.dll.
  • The active window was “Acknowledgement required to use Zoom AI Companion.”
  • System memory was not exhausted: approximately 11.4 GB remained free.

This points toward a Zoom UI/accessibility interaction around the AI Companion acknowledgement flow. It also resembles the UI/COM path present in the earlier crashes.

ChatGPT analysis of the dump.

 

The best-supported diagnosis is a Zoom UI-thread blocking bug involving Windows accessibility and COM, triggered while the “Acknowledgement required to use Zoom AI Companion” window was active.

What happened:

  1. Zoom’s main interface thread began processing an accessibility request.
  2. Zoom’s zVideoUI, UIBase, and DuiLib components called Windows Accessibility (oleacc.dll).
  3. That code synchronously waited for another window through SendMessageTimeout.
  4. The target window did not answer, leaving Zoom’s main message loop blocked.
  5. Because the main UI thread could no longer process clicks, drawing, or window messages, Windows displayed “Zoom Meetings is not responding.”

WinDbg classified it as:

APPLICATION_HANG_BlockedIn_SendMessageTimeout

This is consistent with the earlier incidents involving Zoom UI components, combase.dll, and RPC/COM. It does not look like a memory-exhaustion problem: approximately 11.4 GB of RAM was still free.

The remaining unknown is what initiated the accessibility request. It could be Windows UI Automation, an accessibility tool, an enterprise monitoring/overlay utility, or Zoom’s own AI Companion interface. The dump proves Zoom mishandled that request on its main UI thread, but it cannot identify the external caller because only the Zoom process was captured.

So, in plain terms: Zoom 7.1.5 is freezing because its interface gets trapped in a synchronous accessibility/COM interaction, most likely around the AI Companion acknowledgement dialog. The exact initiating component still needs one controlled reproduction or a system-wide trace to identify.

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