Arduino 1.8.13 fails to load (W10 64b)

Projects Programming
1

My Arduino IDE 1.8.13 fails to load: the startup window shows the IDE preparing boards, then disappears.
I reloaded the 1.8.13 (after first uninstalling), same issue.

The application log in AppData Arduino15 folder shows the following:

  1. part of the log from a few days ago when it worked fine:
2026-04-14T05:31:21.146Z DEBUG c.a.u.n.HttpConnectionManager:125 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Using proxy DIRECT
2026-04-14T05:31:21.371Z INFO c.a.u.n.HttpConnectionManager:153 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Connect to https://builder.arduino.cc/builder/v1/boards/0x1A86/0x7523, method=GET, request id=1F0A06E9CC0A4A9E
2026-04-14T05:31:21.763Z INFO c.a.u.n.HttpConnectionManager:157 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Request complete URL="https://builder.arduino.cc/builder/v1/boards/0x1A86/0x7523", method=GET, response code=404, request id=1F0A06E9CC0A4A9E, headers={null=[HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found], X-Cache=[Error from cloudfront], Server=[awselb/2.0], X-Amz-Cf-Pop=[AMS58-P5], Connection=[keep-alive], X-Amz-Cf-Id=[U8W3Z1dPeYMBwMW9SpgyNAsKD3bjPEwFCvjryg7Apjs0fCBQ97azKg==], Content-Length=[0], Date=[Tue, 14 Apr 2026 05:31:21 GMT], Via=[1.1 a66afeef05dba31abba2c6cbc2eaa73c.cloudfront.net (CloudFront)], Content-Type=[text/plain; charset=utf-8]}
2026-04-14T05:31:21.764Z WARN p.a.h.BoardCloudResolver:64 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Fail to get the Vid Pid information from the builder response code=404e or paste code here
  1. The log from a few minutes ago, failing to load:
2026-04-18T13:49:23.111Z DEBUG c.a.u.n.HttpConnectionManager:125 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Using proxy DIRECT
2026-04-18T13:49:23.333Z INFO c.a.u.n.HttpConnectionManager:153 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Connect to https://builder.arduino.cc/builder/v1/boards/0x1A86/0x7523, method=GET, request id=D3EE3A0D31DF4E0B
2026-04-18T13:49:23.753Z INFO c.a.u.n.HttpConnectionManager:157 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Request complete URL="https://builder.arduino.cc/builder/v1/boards/0x1A86/0x7523", method=GET, response code=404, request id=D3EE3A0D31DF4E0B, headers={null=[HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found], X-Cache=[Error from cloudfront], Server=[awselb/2.0], X-Amz-Cf-Pop=[BRU50-P2], Connection=[keep-alive], X-Amz-Cf-Id=[C0uZ7mtTy_VvD-l4Bs_1ivJACKWlB41caGVpXCg1tWtElZqMEBpA9g==], Content-Length=[0], Date=[Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:49:23 GMT], Via=[1.1 212f43b08f4e3e1415c43d9ebab63940.cloudfront.net (CloudFront)], Content-Type=[text/plain; charset=utf-8]}
2026-04-18T13:49:23.753Z WARN p.a.h.BoardCloudResolver:64 [cc.arduino.packages.discoverers.serial.SerialDiscovery] Fail to get the Vid Pid information from the builder response code=404

What can be wrong, how to fix this issue please?

Edit: the Arduino program is installed in c:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino and the user data is stored in c:\users\myname\AppData\Arduino15
The user documents are located here: c:\users\myname\Documents

2

try to remove the line starting with board= from preferences.txt file located in c:\users\myname\AppData\Arduino15

3

Solved, many thanks!. How did you find this out?
The first line in preferences was

board=328

Removing that line made the IDE start up again, and now in preferences does appear

board=uno

...what is going on?