GoKawiilMicrosoft has started rolling out a permanent fix for a known issue that causes system crashes and gaming issues on Windows 11 devices.
On affected PCs, users have also reported games failing to launch and freezing with "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" errors.
When it was first confirmed, Microsoft said that this issue affects games like ARC Raiders, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2.
While it was initially believed that the August 2026 updates may be behind these problems, Microsoft later blamed them on peripherals with built-in RGB lighting.
"Ongoing investigation indicates that this issue is related to peripherals or internal device components which have RGB lighting features," Microsoft noted. "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."
On Wednesday, the company confirmed that the inpoutx64.sys driver causes these issues and said that it has begun rolling out a fix that disables it on affected devices.
"This issue is resolved by a block that prevents the inpoutx64 driver from loading. The block targets devices with this specific driver enabled and the game ARC Raiders installed," it added in a Windows release health update. "This resolution disables the inpoutx64 driver and displays a message window with information about the disablement. Following this message, the game will launch as normal."
The fix is now propagating to Windows consumer and business devices that aren't managed by IT departments and requires a system restart to be applied.
The rollout began on August 26, 2026, at 6 PM PT, and it might take up to 24 hours to reach all affected devices. The driver block will also be included in the September 2026 Windows security updates and future releases.
Temporary workaround for enterprise systems
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