.. blogpost::
    :title: import cvxopt fails
    :keywords: cvxopt, Windows
    :date: 2015-09-21
    :categories: import, module, issue
    :lid: l-blog-cvxopt-2015

    The instruction ``import cvxopt`` sometimes fails
    with the following error::

        ImportError: DLL load failed

    According to this article
    `import cvxopt.base: the specified module could not be found <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14778178/import-cvxopt-base-the-specified-module-could-not-be-found>`_,
    *numpy* needs to be imported first::

        import numpy
        import cvxopt

    And everything works fine.