Windows 11’s August update is crashing games and causing PC problems
Windows 11 update KB5121003 is the major security update for August, released last week and fixing over 400 security vulnerabilities. However, some users are reporting serious issues after installation, including system crashes, driver issues, login errors, and more.
According to Windows Latest, there’s been a surge in reports from gamers stating that certain titles crash unexpectedly after installing KB5121003. ARC Raiders and The Finals, both from Swedish studio Embark Games, appear to be especially affected.
It doesn’t seem to be caused by an issue with a game update or game drivers, which the studio confirmed in a Discord message. Rather, KB5121003 seems to have compromised compatibility with a specific driver called inpoutx64.sys.
This incompatibility causes the PC to crash in the middle of a game, in some cases even multiple times. In certain instances, Windows restarts immediately, and error messages like “Hang detected on GameThread” or EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION may also appear.
Update KB5121003 is causing other issues as well, with reports of unexpected drops in refresh rates, black screens, faulty HDR behavior, and other graphics-related problems. Furthermore, there appear to be isolated issues when signing in with Windows Hello via PIN. In these cases, the stored sign-in key is deleted or corrupted upon restart, meaning affected users have to register a new PIN every time they sign in.
What can you do if you’re affected?
Microsoft hasn’t yet publicly acknowledged the issues, so it’s unclear whether the company is working on a solution. For affected gamers, the developer Embark intends to work on a long-term solution, but has not yet specified a timeframe for resolution.
According to Embark, however, it’s possible to prevent further crashes by opening the Windows Command Prompt and entering sc stop inpoutx64. Then enter the command sc delete inpoutx64 and press Enter. Then close the window, go to File Explorer, and navigate to C:WindowsSystem32drivers where you can delete file inpoutx64.sys. In some cases, it may be enough to carry out just the first part to temporarily disable inpoutx64.sys rather than deleting it altogether.
Or you can try uninstalling KB5121003, although this means you’ll no longer benefit from the numerous security patches it provides. You can do this via Settings → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates. However, this step is only recommended if your PC is severely affected by issues, as it can compromise your system’s security.
