electron: [Bug]: Windows 10/11: Electron 16 doesn't start up under certain graphics hardware configurations

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a bug report that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Electron Version

16.0.6

What operating system are you using?

Windows

Operating System Version

Window 10 Enterprise 64 Bit 1909, Windows 10 21H2, Microsoft Windows 11 Business 22000,

What arch are you using?

x64

Last Known Working Electron version

15.3.2

Expected Behavior

Start up with no problem, window visible, renderer code running.

Actual Behavior

Not starting up at all, or starting up only with --disable-gpu flag, or only starting up after graphics driver has been upgraded.

In most cases, users are saying that the app starts up, with five running processes, but no window. One user reported a blank screen. No logging from Signal Desktop code. You can see the user reports here:

• https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/5726
• https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/5721
• https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/5738

Several users ran into this on Signal Desktop 5.27.0 where previous version of Signal Desktop didn’t have problems. The major change is the upgrade from Electron 15 to Electron 16.

An example of the output we got from one of our users with --enable-logging:

[43300:0111/223036.911:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[43300:0111/223036.912:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1274)] The GPU process has crashed 1 time(s)
[43300:0111/223037.141:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[43300:0111/223037.141:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1274)] The GPU process has crashed 2 time(s)
[43300:0111/223037.357:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[43300:0111/223037.357:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1274)] The GPU process has crashed 3 time(s)
[43300:0111/223037.397:INFO:CONSOLE(33)] "The vm module of Node.js is deprecated in the renderer process and will be removed.", source: node:electron/js2c/renderer_init (33)
[43300:0111/223037.784:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[43300:0111/223037.784:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1274)] The GPU process has crashed 4 time(s)
[43300:0111/223037.866:INFO:CONSOLE(33)] "The vm module of Node.js is deprecated in the renderer process and will be removed.", source: node:electron/js2c/renderer_init (33)
[43300:0111/223038.037:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[43300:0111/223038.037:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1274)] The GPU process has crashed 5 time(s)
[43300:0111/223038.278:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[43300:0111/223038.278:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1274)] The GPU process has crashed 6 time(s)
[43300:0111/223038.382:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(996)] Reinitialized the GPU process after a crash. The reported initialization time was 0 ms

Also:

[18796:0106/130403.410:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[18796:0106/130403.724:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[18796:0106/130404.043:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
(node:26628) [DEP0005] DeprecationWarning: Buffer() is deprecated due to security and usability issues. Please use the Buffer.alloc(), Buffer.allocUnsafe(), or Buffer.from() methods instead.
(Use `Signal --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
[18796:0106/130406.831:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[18796:0106/130407.327:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819
[18796:0106/130407.812:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(968)] GPU process exited unexpectedly: exit_code=-1073741819

A variety of different graphics hardware was involved:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
• Intel UHD Graphics 620
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• Intel HD Graphics 4000

Testcase Gist URL

No response

Additional Information

No response