NVDA freezes with Chromium-based apps and WinError 1816

Selçuk Uçar

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Sep 17, 2026, 9:13:39 AMSep 17

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Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing an intermittent NVDA freeze when using Chromium-based applications.

My setup:

NVDA 2026.2 AMD64
Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9457)
Microsoft Edge / Chromium-based browsers
WhatsApp Web
Spotify Desktop

The problem is not limited to the browser. I have also experienced the same behavior in Spotify Desktop.

When the problem occurs, NVDA stops speaking and eventually becomes unresponsive. Restarting NVDA restores normal operation.

I managed to capture the NVDA log immediately after the problem occurred. The important part is:

INFO - watchdog.waitForFreezeRecovery:

Starting freeze recovery after 0.500033699994674 seconds.

INFO - watchdog.waitForFreezeRecovery:

Recovered from freeze after 0.5505807000154164 seconds.

ERROR - unhandled exception:

...

File "winUser.pyc", line 728, in PostMessage

OSError: [WinError 1816] Not enough quota is available to process this command.

ERROR - keyboardHandler.internal_keyDownEvent:

...

File "winUser.pyc", line 728, in PostMessage

OSError: [WinError 1816] Not enough quota is available to process this command.

ERROR - scriptHandler.executeScript:

error executing script ... with gesture 'NVDA+n'

...

File "winUser.pyc", line 728, in PostMessage

OSError: [WinError 1816] Not enough quota is available to process this command.

Interestingly, I found that changing:

NVDA Settings → Advanced → "Use UI Automation to access Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers when available"

from Default to Yes completely prevents the problem so far.

However, browser behavior changes somewhat when UI Automation is forced on, so I would prefer to understand and fix the underlying issue rather than permanently relying on this workaround.

This makes me wonder whether there is an issue involving NVDA 2026.2 and Chromium 153 / Chromium-based applications, possibly related to the IAccessible2/ChromeVBuf path and the Windows message queue.

Has anyone else experienced the same WinError 1816 with Chromium-based applications?

I can provide the full NVDA log and additional information if needed.

Thanks!

Quentin Christensen

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Sep 17, 2026, 11:17:08 PMSep 17

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Thanks for reporting this, I see we have an issue on GitHub reporting the same issue, was that you? Chromium 153 (IA2 / ChromeVBuf): RPC null context handle (WinError 1775) leads to unhandled exception and Windows PostMessage queue exhaustion (WinError 1816) · Issue #20846 · nvaccess/nvda

(If it wasn't you, please do feel free to subscribe to that issue as that is where we will track updates. We have marked it as P1 and are looking at trying to fix this for NVDA 2026.3).

Kind regards

Quentin

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NV Access

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Selçuk Uçar

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Sep 18, 2026, 4:00:16 AMSep 18

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Hi,

No, that GitHub issue was not opened by me.

However, the issue described there appears to be very closely related to what I experienced, including the WinError 1816 and the fact that forcing UI Automation for Chromium-based browsers prevents the problem.

I have subscribed to issue #20846 and will follow the updates there.

Thank you for pointing me to the issue and for looking into fixing it in NVDA 2026.3.

Kind regards.

Training: https://www.nvaccess.org/shop/

Certification: https://certification.nvaccess.org/

Blog, releases & news by email: https://nvaccess.org/newsletter

User group: https://nvaccess.org/nvda-users

Mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@NVAccess

Other socials & community: https://www.nvaccess.org/#socials

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***
Please note: the NVDA project has a Citizen and Contributor Code of Conduct.
NV Access expects that all community members will read and abide by the rules set out in this document while participating in this group.
https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

You can contact the group owners and moderators via nvda-user...@nvaccess.org.
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NVDA Screen Reader Discussion" group.
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