Microsoft confirms latest Windows 11 update is crashing games and rebooting PCs

The latest Windows 11 update, Patch Tuesday KB5121003, has been causing issues for games and PCs alike. After being released on August 11 for builds 26200.9168 and 26100.9168, the update began rolling out last week, bringing various improvements and bug fixes. However, many users have been reporting that it is causing games to crash and triggering system crashes, resulting in automatic reboots.

Redditors MyCatsNameIsKlaus and Thin_Twist7030 confirmed these crashes after installing the update, experiencing EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors and system blue screens of death (BSODs) while playing games such as Arc Raiders, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and is investigating whether it is caused by the update itself or incompatible third-party software.

Some users have found that rolling back the update via DISM has resolved the problem, while others are pausing Windows Update for a month to prevent further disruptions. In addition to the game crashes and system reboots, Microsoft Teams and the new Outlook are also reportedly broken on Arm devices after installing the update. Users on Snapdragon-powered Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition and HP OmniBook 3, as well as Surface Pro 11, have reported similar issues.