Windows 11’s August replace is crashing video games and inflicting PC issues

It doesn’t appear to be brought on by a difficulty with a sport replace or sport drivers, which the studio confirmed in a Discord message. Rather, KB5121003 appears to have compromised compatibility with a selected driver known as inpoutx64.sys.

This incompatibility causes the PC to crash in the course of a sport, in some instances even a number of instances. In sure situations, Windows restarts instantly, and error messages like “Hang detected on GameThread” or EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION might also seem.

Update KB5121003 is inflicting different points as nicely, with experiences of sudden drops in refresh charges, black screens, defective HDR habits, and different graphics-related issues. Furthermore, there look like remoted points when signing in with Windows Hello through PIN. In these instances, the saved sign-in secret’s deleted or corrupted upon restart, that means affected customers must register a brand new PIN each time they check in.

What are you able to do if you happen to’re affected?

Microsoft hasn’t but publicly acknowledged the problems, so it’s unclear whether or not the corporate is engaged on an answer. For affected avid gamers, the developer Embark intends to work on a long-term resolution, however has not but specified a timeframe for decision.

According to Embark, nevertheless, it’s attainable to forestall additional crashes by opening the Windows Command Prompt and coming into sc cease inpoutx64. Then enter the command sc delete inpoutx64 and press Enter. Then shut the window, go to File Explorer, and navigate to C:WindowsSystem32drivers the place you’ll be able to delete file inpoutx64.sys. In some instances, it could be sufficient to hold out simply the primary half to quickly disable inpoutx64.sys fairly than deleting it altogether.

Or you’ll be able to strive uninstalling KB5121003, though this implies you’ll now not profit from the quite a few safety patches it offers. You can do that through Settings → Windows Update → Update historical past → Uninstall updates. However, this step is simply beneficial in case your PC is severely affected by points, as it will probably compromise your system’s safety.