Fix Quartus Prime System Console: jvm.dll and awt.dll Errors

After installing Quartus Prime on Windows, the System Console may fail to launch with errors referencing jvm.dll or awt.dll. This happens because the Visual C++ runtime DLLs required by Quartus Prime’s embedded JRE are not in the search path that System Console uses when loading its libraries. The fix is a one-time manual copy of two DLL files. This applies to all Quartus Prime editions used for Nios V FPGA development with Intel platforms.

Error Symptoms #

System Console fails to open after Quartus Prime installation, showing one or both of the following errors:

• Cannot load library jvm.dll
• awt.dll: Can't find dependent libraries

Root Cause #

Quartus Prime ships with an embedded 64-bit JRE located in $QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/bin64/jre64/bin/. The Visual C++ runtime libraries (msvcp<xxx>.dll and msvcr<xxx>.dll) that jvm.dll and awt.dll depend on are present in that JRE folder, but are not copied to the $QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/bin64/ directory where System Console searches for its dependencies. Windows cannot resolve the dependency chain, causing the load failure.

How to Fix It #

Copy the two MSVC runtime DLL files from the JRE bin folder to the Quartus bin64 folder:

1. Locate the two files in: $QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/bin64/jre64/bin/
   The files are named msvcp<xxx>.dll and msvcr<xxx>.dll, where <xxx> is the Visual C++ runtime version number (for example, msvcp120.dll and msvcr120.dll).
2. Copy both files to: $QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/bin64/
3. Restart Quartus Prime and launch System Console.

Note: $QUARTUS_ROOTDIR is the Quartus Prime installation root, typically C:\intelFPGA\<version>\quartus\ or C:\intelFPGA_pro\<version>\quartus\ depending on your edition.

Verify the Fix #

After copying the files, open Quartus Prime and launch Tools → System Console. The console window should open without errors. If the error persists, check that you copied the correct version of the DLLs — there may be multiple msvcp*.dll files in the JRE bin folder; copy all of them to bin64/.

Key Takeaways #

• The jvm.dll and awt.dll load errors after Quartus Prime installation are caused by missing MSVC runtime DLLs in $QUARTUS_ROOTDIR/bin64/.
• The fix requires copying msvcp<xxx>.dll and msvcr<xxx>.dll from bin64/jre64/bin/ to bin64/ — no reinstallation needed.
• This is a one-time fix that persists across Quartus Prime sessions; it does not affect other Quartus tools or your Nios V FPGA project files.