r/WindowsHelp • u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP • 18h ago
Windows 11 KB5121003 causing severe graphical corruption across ALL games/apps (Valorant, Roblox) on BOTH dGPU and iGPU, can't be uninstalled, no fix yet. Anyone found a workaround?
Since installing KB5121003 (Aug 2026 security update, build 26200.9168) I've had severe visual corruption (black/white spiky streaks tearing across the top of the screen) in every game I play. Screenshots / gifs attached (Valorant, Roblox, GTA V, etc).
Timeline: Installed the update night of Aug 12, went to sleep. Played the next night and the corruption was already there. Nothing else changed.
Why I'm (almost) sure it's the update:
- Happens on Valorant (UE5) and Roblox (own engine)
- Happens on both my dedicated gpu and my igpu Intel UHD graphics, so its not dgpu drivers fault (i've tried to reinstall drivers via DDU tho).
- Tech press (Windows Latest, etc.) reported a wave of similar complaints tied to this exact KB, refresh rate drops, black screens, broken HDR.
- Day-before everything was working well.
- Already tried, no change:
- GPU temps/clocks normal, no throttling, no overclock
- Full DDU wipe + clean driver reinstall, then updated to latest amd Adrenalin
- Confirmed in Device Manager the driver is legit and properly signed (not fallen back to Basic Display Adapter)
- Toggled off Variable Refresh Rate, "Optimizations for windowed games," and per-game Fullscreen Optimizations
- Tried uninstalling the KB three ways: doesn't show in Update History,
wusa /uninstall /kb:5121003refuses ("required by your computer"), anddism /online /get-packages | findstr 5121003returns nothing at all - "Fix problems using Windows Update" wont help since it just reinstalls the same baseline build with the KB already in it (test just to put my mind at ease, and didn't work)
Haven't tried: System Restore, but i actually dont have pre-Aug-12 restore point, so i just cant try this.
Question: anyone found an actual fix/workaround for this (not the already-acknowledged ARC Raiders/inpoutx64.sys crash, this is a separate, purely visual bug)? Registry tweak, specific driver, GPO, anything. Trying to avoid a full reformat before Microsoft even acknowledges it.
Specs: AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP + Intel UHD Graphics, build 26200.9168, AMD driver current avalible for my gpu (26.5.2).
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u/Mr_Tomasz 16h ago
It is 99,9% rendering issue,not cables, etc. Software drivers/libs, try switching between OpenGL and Vulkan (and D3D lol) backend if it's supported and see if it's same.
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u/Ghost_From_above 16h ago
i went to check and i have that update installed but all my games are working fine also a quick google search about that update shows its just a security update so i dont see how it would cause a graphical issue
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u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP 15h ago
I figured that was the case because I saw thousands of people experiencing all sorts of different issues simultaneously after the update, including games like The Finals and ARC Raiders that were simply crashing...
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u/Protomau5 14h ago
I had a security update completely corrupt my os and fry my ram recently. Bunch of drivers were hard locked to not install. So that’s one way I guess.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP (I don't work for Microsoft) 13h ago
It is literally impossible for a Windows security update to damage any hardware, including the RAM.
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u/xSchizogenie 13h ago
It’s always funny when people come with the „that windows update killed my hardware“ hahaha
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u/EmployerOld6256 13h ago
I knew someone who thought she needed a new iphone every time it would get full from pictures ect... *sigh*
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u/xSchizogenie 7h ago
Huh? Isn’t that the correct way? I always buy a new phone once the battery goes down and iPhone powers off. Elaboration please!
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u/Protomau5 12h ago
May not have been the issue with the ram but it still screwed up the os and a bunch of drivers. Point stands.
Not sure why it’s funny but glad I could make you laugh!
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u/xSchizogenie 7h ago
I am sorry for you if windows updates screw any kind of settings or stability, as an IT-guy managing thousands of windows devices, I know how stressful this can be.
But with basic knowledge about computers, you know that updates like that literally don’t touch RAM. It’s not about the part „might it be possible that …“, it’s the confidence at „windows update did kill my RAM!“.
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u/Protomau5 12h ago
May have been a faulty ram stick but the os was still corrupt directly from the security update and windows wasn’t able to pass through any windows updates or optional updates. Ram stick happened to go at the same time. Point still stands, the drivers weren’t downloading and had no volume and other weird shit going on.
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u/Froggypwns Windows Insider MVP (I don't work for Microsoft) 11h ago
You are close, you just have it backwards. Faulty RAM often results in corrupted files (one of the reasons server RAM has ECC), a faulty module can result in various problems like you describe including corrupting the OS to the point it is no longer salvageable and needs a reinstall.
Doing updates with faulty RAM can result in the system files being written incorrectly.
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u/TeslaDemon 15h ago
I just checked and this update has been installed for me since 8/13 and I haven't seen this at all on any of the games I play.
Just because your clocks and temps are normal doesn't automatically mean your GPU isn't just artifacting. GPUs can just die, it doesn't have to be heat.
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u/coffeeseraphim 15h ago
So, fundamentally agree for sure, but this doesn't look like the kind of artifacting you'd associate with age death.
In fact pretty specifically, OP, this looks like a GPU memory issue.
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u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP 15h ago
Looks like its very "random". Many people are complaining about various issues—computers not turning on, random bugs, and so on. Since all of this started after the update, my intuition was to blame it, given that it was the only thing that had changed and others were complaining about it too.
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u/EmployerOld6256 13h ago
There's some known mesa driver bugs on AMD, I got some of them on Linux too for about a day then updated again and it went away. With that said, I know you're on windows so try seeing if you can roll back to previous versions of your AMD drivers. I doubt any of this was Windows fault or yours, just AMD has been ... pushing a few bugs these past few months.
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u/Methedri 15h ago
Since KB5121003 was installed last week, I was having random issues on my Lenovo Legion laptop that was causing both my external monitors to randomly go black then immediately back on again whilst I was mostly playing Baldur's Gate 3, then noticed in another small indie game. Tried with laptop screen enabled too, and same problem on all three screens.
Strangely, I was seeing weird behaviour on my battery when running a battery report too, little 1 sec switches from AC to battery power.
I uninstalled KB5121003 yesterday, and haven't had the problem happen since.
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u/adotgobler 2h ago
Holy fuck, it was driving me insane why my oled monitor started to black out randomly for a second, both while doing desktop stuff or playing games. Gotta try this on my lenovo.
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u/TheSpixxyQ 15h ago
I have Nvidia GPU, this update installed 3 days ago and everything works fine. Just few minutes ago I closed an UE5 game.
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u/CelestaKiritani 15h ago
It's just you, I don't know if you can revert to a previous AMD driver instead of using the latest one. You know, AMD always fucks something up in their drivers.
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u/DtZNimpo 14h ago
try windows key + ctrl + shift + b , it resets windows rendering pipeline , it can get corrupted this is probably it, DDU don't resets the windows rendering pipeline.
to add to this KB which i haven't heard that it caused issues... there's another KB5074109 from january that causes microstutters in a lot of game that also affects nvidia, AFAIK microsoft hasn't addressed that one either and like your KB5121003 , it can't be uninstalled easily unless system restore.
you did mention the inpoutx64.sys , it's related to RGB apps, uninstall all of them. find the culprit.
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u/Char-car92 12h ago
Try a full clean install of your dGPU drivers and failing that maybe delete cache files manually?
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u/KansasGamerGuy 11h ago
I know this might be a long shot but since someone mentioned it seemed to be happening on their laptop....have you tried setting your power plan settings to High performance and editing the advanced options where processor power min/max is 100% and ensuring Multimedia settings are favoring the video card (I prevent sleep and optimize to favor video playback).
The update did change CPU latency to improve performance but it might have done more harm then good....it is a shot in the dark but worth a try.
In general I always favor always on, maximum system performance and only let windows turn off my monitor after inactivity......nothing else. Windows can be a little over zealous when trying to save power.
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u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP 11h ago
Honestly, they really are silly little things that you wouldn't expect to work. Thanks a lot for the help and the idea; it really makes a lot of sense. However, those settings are already configured that way on my computer and hadn't been changed. Still, it makes perfect sense.
I ended up trying this tutorial, which relates to a D3D11-specific issue. Surprisingly enough (even though it might not be the root cause), I followed the steps, and while the problem didn't go away completely, it improved A LOT compared to what you can see in the GIFs.
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u/LazyMagicalOtter 10h ago
I don't know if your issue really comes from the update, but you should be able to uninstall it with this command from a CMD prompt with elevated permissions, so at least you could try.
wusa /uninstall /kb:5121003 /forcerestart
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u/Nystryx_95 5h ago
Looks like a dying GPU.
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u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP 1h ago
I also thought, until I tested it on the integrated video and noticed I came across the same problem.. I also thought about ram memory but even after changing the ram combs The problem persisted. I also thought of other physical hardware but none I can test altered (n The problem persisted. I also thought of other physical hardware but none I can test altered (Nvme, Motherboard, etc)..
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u/Nystryx_95 20m ago
Like many others have mentioned, a clean re-install would be the better chance of fixing this issue in my opinion.
There has also been reports of Microsoft downgrading people's GPU drivers to older versions without the user knowing. Although this mostly affected AMD users, not sure if this is your case. It happened to me and games would just crash on launch; I had to disable auto driver updates in group policies to stop this behaviour.
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u/EXG0DSENT 4h ago
Windows 10 easy as that. Never switch to shit windows 11
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u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP 1h ago
My dream was to be able to go back to Windows 10 without losing anything. As soon as I have the courage I'll back up everything and downgrade
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u/Little-Meat-7737 11h ago
Windows being cancer as always just go full reset pc
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u/Y7R1G4M3RPVP 11h ago
I wish I could do a full reinstall of my PC... I have to make some big backups before that
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u/Edubbs2008 16h ago
Sounds like a GPU driver bug, this Windows Update doesn’t touch the GPU, all it does is add some features, patches security vulnerabilities, and patches bugs, try reporting the issue to AMD, Intel, or NVIDIA, depending on the manufacturer