Your RGB lighting could be responsible for some Windows 11 system instabilities you’ve been experiencing recently, particularly while gaming. That’s according to Microsoft, following a recent issue investigation following reports of games becoming unresponsive and crashing on the operating system.
The tech giant detailed this problem and its findings in a recent knowledge article on Microsoft Learn. PCs running Windows 11 version 25H2 or newer are prone to the issue, following the August 11 KB5121003 update. The errors pertain to driver or code components. which use file names similar to ‘inpoutx64’.
The firm doesn’t elaborate as to why inpoutx64 causes such headaches for Windows 11 and affected games, which for the moment include Arc Raiders, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals. However, we do know that symptoms include ‘Exception_Access_Violation’ blue screens, which occur when software tries to read or write code beyond its expected remit.
It’s likely that the anti-cheat tech in these games, and others, isn’t playing nice when RGB software behaves in the aforementioned manner, putting Windows 11 in a bind. Both Microsoft and some developers of these games have promised fixes, but recommend disabling inpoutx64 within the operating system’s registry and/or service list for the moment. Note, however, that following this step could stop your RGB effects from working properly.
This bug not only affects our RGB peripherals, but also internal components. Considering how prevalent RGB LEDs have become in modern systems, problems like this are particularly frustrating. Even as someone that doesn’t play any of the affected games and sets all their LEDs to a static white, I’m now wondering if I ever have or will fall prey to this problem.
If you can’t stand the sight of RGB and are in need of a new cooler, check out Ben’s Dark Pro Pro 6 review for a true dark knight of cooling.
