spyder-kernels = 2.3.1 not working

Problem Description

I created a new conda environment (using miniconda) with python=3.9 and installed spyder-kernels=2.3.1 from conda-forge to be able to sue this new environment in the spyder standalone app (v5.3.1) in Windows 11, however, I get the following error in the console when starting Spyder:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\runpy.py", line 197, in _run_module_as_main
return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\runpy.py", line 87, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\spyder_kernels\console\__main__.py", line 22, in
from spyder_kernels.console import start
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\spyder_kernels\console\start.py", line 21, in
import ipykernel
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\ipykernel\__init__.py", line 5, in
from .connect import * # noqa
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\ipykernel\connect.py", line 11, in
import jupyter_client
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\jupyter_client\__init__.py", line 8, in
from .asynchronous import AsyncKernelClient # noqa
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\jupyter_client\asynchronous\__init__.py", line 1, in
from .client import AsyncKernelClient # noqa
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\jupyter_client\asynchronous\client.py", line 6, in
from jupyter_client.channels import HBChannel
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\jupyter_client\channels.py", line 12, in
import zmq.asyncio
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\zmq\__init__.py", line 103, in
from zmq import backend
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\zmq\backend\__init__.py", line 31, in
raise original_error from None
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\zmq\backend\__init__.py", line 26, in
_ns = select_backend(first)
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\zmq\backend\select.py", line 31, in select_backend
mod = import_module(name)
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "C:\Users\Gebruiker\miniconda3\envs\miguel_spyder\lib\site‑packages\zmq\backend\cython\__init__.py", line 6, in
from . import (
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _device: The specified module could not be found.

Versions

• Conda version: 4.13.0
• Spyder version: 5.3.1
• Python version: 3.9.12
• Operating System name/version: Windows 11

Any ideas how to solve this problem?

[dalthviz]

Thank you for the new info @Superberti ! Glad is working for you 👍 And yes to get the up to date version of Spyder-kernels and Spyder you need to use the conda-forge channel. The thing is that the default anaconda channel just goes up to Spyder 5.1.5 and Spyder-kernels 2.2.1

Since this seems more like a specific miniconda/conda setup issue I will close this one but if you have more info regarding this let us know!

[Superberti]

So I’ve found the reason! I invested some time with the famous ProcessMonitor to see what dll is missing (unfortunately the error message doesn’t help as it hides the dll name). So the python process tries to load “ffi.dll” from various places but this fails as the installed (by conda) dll has the name “ffi-8.dll”. Renaming this dll to “ffi.dll” solves the problem and I’m able to use the environment in spyder again. But it also looks that I’ve to install the spyder-kernels from conda-forge, right?

Bye, Oliver