diff --git a/lib/sender.js b/lib/sender.js
index 2c767e2c62a7fb50a987454f0c148ec5b4a0a523..48549a5c0fde4347a3fde83a32e56c2bbc81d0ce 100644
--- a/lib/sender.js
+++ b/lib/sender.js
@@ -561,7 +561,13 @@ class Sender {
    * @private
    */
   sendFrame(list, cb) {
-    if (list.length === 2) {
+    //
+    // Never write an empty payload on its own: `socket.write()` of a
+    // zero-length buffer fails with EFAULT under Electron on arm64 kernels with
+    // 39-bit virtual addresses, which kills the connection (stablyai/orca#23398).
+    // The header already encodes the zero length, so the wire bytes are unchanged.
+    //
+    if (list.length === 2 && list[1].length !== 0) {
       this._socket.cork();
       this._socket.write(list[0]);
       this._socket.write(list[1], cb);