Solutions to "Unhandled exception" error when starting Surfer

If updating the driver for your video card doesn't resolve the issue, you can also turn off the hardware acceleration for the video driver in Surfer. Since Surfer won’t open, you can do this by completing the following steps: 

1. Close Surfer completely.
2. In Windows 7 and below, click the Windows Start button and type regedit into the search bar. In Windows 8.1 and 10, click on the Windows Start button and then type regedit. Press ENTER on the keyboard and the Registry Editor will open.
   Please be very careful when editing the registry!
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Golden Software | Surfer | Settings.
4. If EnableFBO is not listed in the settings folder:
   1. Click Edit | New | String Value.
   2. For the name, enter: EnableFBO
5. Double-click on the EnableFBO and enter 0 for the Value data.
6. Click OK.
7. Close the Registry Editor.
8. Reopen Surfer. 

We have also seen that some other programs, such as Webroot Secure Anywhere, caused the same error. You may want to try disabling other programs that are running in the background and try opening Surfer again.

See also:

Solution to: Surfer does not open

Updated November, 2021