Windows 11 26200, Ollama 0.34.1 — tray app shows icon but never starts server; manual ollama serve works perfectly

What is the issue?

Windows build 10.0.26200

Ollama 0.34.1, clean reinstall

RTX 4070 + RTX 3060, CUDA v13, driver 13.1

Recent security updates: KB5129195 (15 Sep), KB5124007 + KB5126052 (09 Sep)

Tray icon appears; curl http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/version fails; ollama list → Error: timed out waiting for server to start

app.log shows "existing instance found, exiting" then "ollama server not ready after retries"

Manual ollama serve works — Listening on 127.0.0.1:11434 in ~3s, GPU detected, API returns 200

Relevant log output

App.log

time=2026-09-17T11:09:30.336+01:00 level=INFO source=app_windows.go:277 msg="starting Ollama" app=C:\Users\stuar\AppData\Local\Programs\Ollama version=0.34.1 OS=Windows/10.0.26200
time=2026-09-17T11:09:30.337+01:00 level=INFO source=app.go:238 msg="initialized tools registry" tool_count=0
time=2026-09-17T11:09:30.340+01:00 level=INFO source=app.go:253 msg="starting ollama server"
time=2026-09-17T11:09:30.340+01:00 level=INFO source=app.go:284 msg="starting ui server" port=53804
time=2026-09-17T11:09:31.709+01:00 level=INFO source=ui.go:245 msg=site.serveHTTP http.method=GET http.path=/api/v1/chats http.pattern="GET /api/v1/chats" http.status=200 http.d=603.3µs request_id=1789639771708861000 version=0.34.1
time=2026-09-17T11:09:31.711+01:00 level=INFO source=ui.go:245 msg=site.serveHTTP http.method=GET http.path=/api/v1/settings http.pattern="GET /api/v1/settings" http.status=200 http.d=515.9µs request_id=1789639771710485700 version=0.34.1
time=2026-09-17T11:09:31.711+01:00 level=INFO source=ui.go:245 msg=site.serveHTTP http.method=GET http.path=/api/v1/cloud http.pattern="GET /api/v1/cloud" http.status=200 http.d=514.5µs request_id=1789639771711001600 version=0.34.1
time=2026-09-17T11:09:32.366+01:00 level=INFO source=ui.go:245 msg=site.serveHTTP http.method=GET http.path=/api/v1/integrations http.pattern="GET /api/v1/integrations" http.status=200 http.d=658.0536ms request_id=1789639771708861000 version=0.34.1
time=2026-09-17T11:09:33.341+01:00 level=INFO source=updater.go:373 msg="beginning update checker" interval=1h0m0s
time=2026-09-17T11:09:40.355+01:00 level=WARN source=app.go:341 msg="ollama server not ready, continuing anyway" error="timeout waiting for Ollama server to be ready"
time=2026-09-17T11:09:41.695+01:00 level=WARN source=ui.go:145 msg="ollama server not ready, retrying" attempt=2
time=2026-09-17T11:09:52.703+01:00 level=ERROR source=ui.go:157 msg="ollama server not ready after retries" error="timeout waiting for Ollama server to be ready"
time=2026-09-17T11:10:01.147+01:00 level=INFO source=app_windows.go:277 msg="starting Ollama" app=C:\Users\stuar\AppData\Local\Programs\Ollama version=0.34.1 OS=Windows/10.0.26200
time=2026-09-17T11:10:01.147+01:00 level=INFO source=eventloop.go:310 msg="existing instance found, not focusing due to startHidden"
time=2026-09-17T11:10:01.147+01:00 level=INFO source=app_windows.go:79 msg="existing instance found, exiting"
time=2026-09-17T11:10:02.711+01:00 level=WARN source=ui.go:145 msg="ollama server not ready, retrying" attempt=2
time=2026-09-17T11:10:13.712+01:00 level=ERROR source=ui.go:157 msg="ollama server not ready after retries" error="timeout waiting for Ollama server to be ready"
time=2026-09-17T11:10:23.714+01:00 level=WARN source=ui.go:145 msg="ollama server not ready, retrying" attempt=2
time=2026-09-17T11:10:34.717+01:00 level=ERROR source=ui.go:157 msg="ollama server not ready after retries" error="timeout waiting for Ollama server to be ready"
time=2026-09-17T11:10:44.725+01:00 level=WARN source=ui.go:145 msg="ollama server not ready, retrying" attempt=2
time=2026-09-17T11:10:55.728+01:00 level=ERROR source=ui.go:157 msg="ollama server not ready after retries" error="timeout waiting for Ollama server to be ready"

Server.log
No entries

OS

Windows

GPU

Nvidia

CPU

AMD

Ollama version

0.34.1