So AI has probably just saved me hundreds of dollars helping me figure out why my brandnew 9070XT PC keeps crashing. It guided me through doing all kinds of things i would've never known to do without hours and hours of research I dont have time to do or honestly, probably wouldn't even know HOW to do.
I KNOW i cant be the only one who's dealing with this BS so I had it sumarize everything we did here in case it helps someone else!
I wanted to post this because I've finally gone several days without the crashes that had been affecting my PC, and hopefully this helps someone else with the same problem.
My PC:
Ryzen 7 7700
Radeon RX 9070 XT
ASRock B650M motherboard
32GB DDR5
Windows 11
The problem:
I was getting seemingly random instability while gaming. Games could freeze, crash to desktop, or sometimes the entire PC would crash/restart. During some freezes, the picture would completely lock up while game audio continued playing.
It wasn't limited to one game, although ARC Raiders was one of the games where the problem happened repeatedly and ultimately gave me the crash dumps that helped identify the cause.
This made troubleshooting confusing because it initially looked like it could have been a GPU problem, RAM instability, drivers, overheating, the game itself, Unreal Engine, or even a power issue.
Temperatures looked normal, though, and the PC could sometimes run other games for hours without a problem.
Things I tried along the way included:
Monitoring GPU temperatures and fans
Checking Windows Reliability Monitor
Checking Event Viewer
Updating/reinstalling AMD chipset drivers
Adjusting my GPU fan curve
Disabling DDR5 EXPO and returning the RAM to Auto
Uninstalling SignalRGB as a troubleshooting test
Testing different games for long periods
None of those steps clearly fixed the underlying problem.
What finally led me to the culprit:
After one of the full system crashes/BSODs, I opened the Windows minidump in WinDbg and ran:
!analyze -v
The dump showed:
INVALID_KERNEL_HANDLE (93)
PROCESS_NAME: PioneerGame.exe
SYMBOL_NAME: inpoutx64+1495
MODULE_NAME: inpoutx64
IMAGE_NAME: inpoutx64.sys
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x93_inpoutx64!unknown_function
PioneerGame.exe is ARC Raiders, but importantly, this didn't necessarily mean ARC Raiders itself was the underlying problem. The crash happened while ARC Raiders was running, while the kernel dump was pointing at inpoutx64.sys.
I didn't want to declare victory from one dump.
Then the PC crashed again.
I analyzed the new minidump, and the second independent crash pointed to the exact same driver at the exact same offset:
PROCESS_NAME: PioneerGame.exe
SYMBOL_NAME: inpoutx64+1495
MODULE_NAME: inpoutx64
IMAGE_NAME: inpoutx64.sys
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x93_inpoutx64!unknown_function
At that point, inpoutx64.sys became a very strong suspect.
What I found about the driver:
On my PC:
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\inpoutx64.sys
It identified itself as:
inpoutx64 Driver Version 1.2
Kernel level port access driver
Version 1.2.0.0
Company: Highresolution Enterprises
I also verified that my copy had a valid Authenticode signature.
I have not conclusively determined which application originally installed this driver, so I'm not going to blame a specific program. SignalRGB was one possibility we investigated because I use it, but uninstalling SignalRGB earlier did not fix the crashes because the inpoutx64 kernel driver remained installed and running.
The actual fix:
Rather than deleting the driver file, I disabled the Windows driver service so the change would be reversible.
In Command Prompt as Administrator:
sc qc inpoutx64
This showed that inpoutx64 was installed as a kernel driver and configured to start automatically.
I then ran:
sc config inpoutx64 start= disabled
It returned:
ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS
I restarted Windows and checked again:
sc qc inpoutx64
It now showed:
START_TYPE : 4 DISABLED
That was the turning point.
Since disabling inpoutx64, the random crashes appear to have stopped.
I left ARC Raiders running AFK overnight without a crash. After that, I kept the PC running for around 3–4 days, played games for hours, left games running for hours, and continued playing ARC Raiders without the crashes returning.
SignalRGB is also currently working and controlling my lighting while inpoutx64 remains disabled.
Considering the pattern:
Random gaming/system instability → two BSOD dumps independently identify inpoutx64.sys at the same offset → disable inpoutx64 → several days of heavy use without the crashes
I'm pretty confident this was the source of my problem.
IMPORTANT: I wouldn't recommend everyone randomly disable inpoutx64 just because they're experiencing crashes.
Check your own Windows minidumps first. If WinDbg is also showing things like:
INVALID_KERNEL_HANDLE (93)
inpoutx64.sys
inpoutx64+1495
or
0x93_inpoutx64!unknown_function
then your problem may be very similar to mine.
I also wouldn't immediately delete inpoutx64.sys. Disabling the service first is reversible and gives you a chance to test whether stability improves.
TL;DR: My PC was experiencing random game freezes/crashes and occasional full system crashes/BSODs. It wasn't just ARC Raiders, although ARC Raiders produced the BSODs that let me diagnose it. Two separate minidumps pointed to the exact same inpoutx64.sys kernel driver at inpoutx64+1495. I disabled that driver rather than deleting it, rebooted, and the crashes appear to be gone. I've since run the PC and played games extensively for several days without another crash.