Microsoft says ongoing issues causing games to crash or fail to launch after installing the August 2026 Windows updates may be caused by peripherals with RGB lighting.
As Microsoft explained when it confirmed it’s investigating on Wednesday, this known issue affects games like ARC Raiders, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2.
“Following the release of Windows updates on August 11, 2026 (KB5121003) and later, Microsoft received reports of issues involving inability to run games as expected,” Microsoft said on the Windows release health dashboard.
On impacted PCs, users are also experiencing gaming freezes, “EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION” errors, and even unexpected system restarts.
In a Thursday update, Microsoft said the gaming issues may be caused by drivers or components installed by RGB devices on affected Windows systems.
“Ongoing investigation indicates that this issue is related to peripherals or internal device components which have RGB lighting features. Such devices may install drivers or code components with file names similar to inpoutx64. In systems where these drivers are found, the issue is then triggered by launching certain games,” it noted.
“We are presently working to understand the relationship between these RGB components and the games which trigger this issue. We will provide an update when more information is available.”
Unofficial workaround shared by game dev
Embark Studios, the Swedish video game developer behind ARC Raiders and The Finals, also said these issues are caused by inpoutx64.sys, but added that they stem from changes made to the Windows kernel driver.
“We’re aware of a crash that has been impacting some players since the most recent Windows update (KB5121003). This is a crash related to the file inpoutx64.sys, which changed with the Windows update,” Embark said on Monday.
Until Microsoft ships an official fix, Embark shared a multi-step temporary workaround that requires users to delete the service and remove the inpoutx64 file from the Windows drivers folder.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has had to address gaming performance and stability issues caused by Windows updates. For instance, in October 2024, Microsoft blocked Windows 24H2 upgrades that caused Asphalt 8 crashes and Easy Anti-Cheat blue screens.
In January 2025, it also lifted a compatibility hold after fixing a bug in the Auto HDR Windows feature that was breaking some games on Windows 11 24H2 devices.
Early last year, Microsoft also removed several upgrade blocks that were preventing Asphalt 8: Airborne, Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora players from upgrading their devices to the latest Windows version.
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