Undo the last change

• If FoFiX broke after a theme change, delete or move that theme folder out of FoFiX’s themes folder and restart.
• If it broke after adding songs, move the newest song folders out of data\songs\ and restart; add them back one at a time.
• If settings are the suspect, rename FoFiX’s settings file (back it up first) so the game creates fresh defaults on next launch.

Clean reinstall without losing songs

• Back up your data\songs\ folder and any themes you made.
• Install FoFiX into a fresh folder — never over an old vanilla Frets on Fire folder.
• Copy songs back in small batches and restart between batches, so a bad song is easy to identify.

For the install itself, see how to install FoFiX and add themes. If FoFiX runs but a specific song will not load, see songs not showing.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: fofix install themes, frets on fire songs not showing, frets on fire black screen crash.

Fixes in order

• In Windows Graphics Settings, browse to FretsOnFire.exe and set its graphics preference to High Performance, so it runs on your discrete GPU.
• Update your GPU driver from the GPU maker’s site.
• Close overlays and recording tools for one test run.
• Lower the game’s resolution and turn off any theme or background video (in FoFiX, disable MPEG video backgrounds) to isolate whether rendering or audio is the bottleneck.

If FPS is still bad

Test FoFiX, which handles modern hardware better, and check the OpenGL guide if the game also fails to initialise graphics. A low frame rate that only appears on one song usually points at that song’s background or chart, not at your GPU.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: frets on fire opengl error, frets on fire black screen crash, fofix install themes.

Check in this order

• Plug the controller in before launching the game, then open Settings, then Controls, and try to bind a fret.
• Check Windows first: open the game-controller settings in Windows and confirm the device appears and its buttons respond.
• For a wireless Xbox 360 guitar, you need the official Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows — Bluetooth alone will not connect it. See the receiver guide (sponsored links).
• For a wired guitar, try a different USB port (prefer a direct port, not a hub) and a different cable if the guitar has a detachable one.

If Windows sees it but the game does not

Rebind every control from scratch in the game’s Controls menu — a partial old mapping can block new bindings. If the guitar works in Windows but never in vanilla Frets on Fire, try Clone Hero or YARG, which have much broader controller support, and read keyboard vs guitar controller before buying anything new.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: xbox 360 wireless receiver guide, best guitar controllers pc rhythm games, keyboard ghosting nkro.

Check 1: The double-folder problem

Extracting a song archive often creates data\songs\[song name]\[song name]\notes.mid — two nested folders with the same name. The game looks one level down, finds another folder instead of notes.mid, and skips the song. Move the inner folder’s contents up one level so notes.mid sits directly inside data\songs\[song name]\.

Check 2: File names and required files

• The chart must be named exactly notes.mid (lowercase, not notes.MIDI).
• The playable audio must be guitar.ogg in Ogg Vorbis format — a guitar.mp3 will not be found.
• song.ini must be present with a title; a missing or broken song.ini can hide the song.
• On Linux, file-name case matters: .ogg and .mid must be lowercase.

Check 3: The right songs folder

Make sure you put the song in the folder of the game you actually launched — vanilla and FoFiX have separate data\songs\ folders. Restart the game after adding songs (FoFiX can rescan from its settings). For the full layout, see how to add custom songs.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: add custom songs frets on fire, charting with eof, fofix install themes.

No sound at all

• Check that the correct output device is selected in Windows and in the game’s audio settings, and that no other app has exclusive control of it.
• Try a different output (speakers instead of a headset, or vice versa) for one song to rule out a device problem.
• Reinstall into a fresh folder if the game’s audio settings file is corrupted, then copy only your songs back.

Audio desync (notes and music drift apart)

• Increase the audio buffer size in the game’s audio settings if sound crackles, and try a 44,100 Hz sample rate.
• Adjust A/V delay in small steps (try 50 at a time) — see calibration and A/V delay.
• Close background apps that use audio or heavy CPU, and test with a song you know well.

If a single song is out of sync while others are fine, the chart or audio file for that song is the problem, not your settings — see how to add custom songs and charting with EOF.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: calibration av delay, frets on fire black screen crash, frets on fire songs not showing.

The safe fix

• Install the official Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86) from Microsoft’s own download centre.
• Alternatively, use the installer build of Frets on Fire (Windows installer on SourceForge), which bundles its runtime, instead of the portable ZIP.
• Restart the computer after installing the redistributable, then launch FretsOnFire.exe again.

Why the copy-DLL advice is wrong

Copying a system DLL from another computer or a download site into the game folder can give you a wrong, outdated or tampered file, and it teaches nothing about which runtime is actually missing. The redistributable installs the correct, signed runtime for the whole system. If the error persists after the redistributable, the problem is elsewhere — see black screen or crash on launch.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: frets on fire black screen crash, frets on fire windows 10 install, frets on fire windows 11 install.

Fixes that actually help

• Install the latest graphics driver from your GPU maker, not from Windows Update. On Windows, the default driver layer translates OpenGL calls and often fails for old games.
• Set your desktop colour depth to 32-bit — the game’s own troubleshooting notes flag 16-bit colour as a cause of OpenGL errors.
• On a laptop with two GPUs, force FretsOnFire.exe to the high-performance GPU in Windows Graphics Settings, or test with the integrated GPU if the discrete one misbehaves.
• Close overlays (Discord, screen recorders, GPU tools) for one test launch; overlays hook the same graphics path.

If nothing works

Try FoFiX, which handles modern graphics more gracefully, or YARG. If the same OpenGL error appears in other old games too, the problem is your driver setup, not Frets on Fire — fix the driver before reinstalling anything.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: frets on fire black screen crash, frets on fire low fps, frets on fire windows 11 install.

Try in this order

• Right-click FretsOnFire.exe, choose Properties, then Compatibility, and try Windows 7 compatibility mode plus “Run as administrator”.
• Update your graphics driver from your GPU maker’s website (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel) — Windows Update drivers are often the problem for old OpenGL games.
• Move the game to a short path such as C:\Games\FretsOnFire\ and run it from there; deep or restricted folders cause write failures.
• If it still crashes, do a clean reinstall into a fresh folder, then copy only your data\songs\ folder back.

What not to do

Do not download individual DLL files from third-party sites, and do not download a “fixed” Frets on Fire from a random mirror. If a runtime file is missing, see the safe DLL fix. If the error mentions OpenGL, see the OpenGL error guide instead.

When to stop troubleshooting vanilla

If vanilla still will not launch after a clean install and a driver update, try FoFiX or Clone Hero. A maintained game is a better use of your evening than a fifth reinstall of a 2008 binary.

Browse the full hub. Related guides: frets on fire opengl error, frets on fire low fps, fofix startup errors.