Facepalm: Windows updates have a nasty habit of causing more problems than they fix. Just last month, Microsoft acknowledged that the August Patch Tuesday update was crashing games and rebooting PCs. The optional KB5124010 patch that rolled out earlier this week is now reportedly causing games like Battlefield 6 and Wardogs to crash regardless of hardware.
Microsoft released the KB5124010 update to the Windows 11 Release Preview channel for versions 24H2 and 25H2 earlier this month before rolling it out to the stable channel on Tuesday. Almost immediately, users started complaining on social media and online forums that it was wreaking havoc on their gaming rigs..
According to several Redditors and Steam users, Battlefield 6 has become unplayable after installing the update, crashing just seconds after launch almost every time. At least one of the posters reported that Windows is not displaying an error message alongside the crashes, making it difficult for users to diagnose the problem.
One Battlefield 6 player posting on the Steam Community forums noted the irony that the KB5124010 update is meant to improve game stability and prevent games from crashing. They added that they reinstalled the game, checked the DirectX components, and even tried Javelin troubleshooting, but nothing helped diagnose the problem. Uninstalling KB5124010, however, seemed to stop the crashes.
After many Wardogs players also reported a similar problem, a Team17 representative acknowledged on the Steam Community forums that the game was crashing and displaying a WD-L020 error. They added that there is no immediate remedy and that the only workaround is to uninstall the contentious update.
One Wardogs player replying to the thread claimed that Windows was displaying a WD-L020-95bc94d86a0d error code after every crash and confirmed that uninstalling the KB5124010 update allowed them to play the game again. Many others also confirmed that uninstalling the update seemed to fix the problem.
It is worth noting that while most of the complaints are coming from Battlefield 6 and Wardogs players, some Battlefield 2042 players have also reported facing the same problem, leading some to suggest that the update might be clashing with EA's Javelin Anti Cheat program, which protects Battlefield, EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and other EA properties.
Games crashing after buggy Windows updates isn't a new problem for Microsoft. Just last month, the company admitted that the KB5121003 update was causing some games to crash randomly. In some cases, the PC was automatically rebooting after the crashes. The problem affected Arc Raiders, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals, among others.