Arrows and Enter. Our sections only — we do not mirror other databases.
30 September 2026 · Update 0.1.2
The client never reaches the menu, the crash box vanishes, or Windows itself reboots. Safe order below. We do not publish anti-cheat bypasses. This is not a studio page.
WD-L020 after Windows 11 KB5124010 is what the studio says Update 0.1.2 fixes. Take the Steam update first. A black screen or login queue in the hour from 08:00 UTC on 30 September is the deploy window, not a dead install: the counter, not a reinstall. 0.1.2 queue counter →
If the client opens but the frame cannot keep up — start with the Steam table: minimum i5-8600 / GTX 1660, 16 GB and kernel Easy Anti-Cheat. System requirements →
Before touching anything, spend ten seconds on a different question: is it only you? Half a lost evening goes into repairing a healthy computer during an hour when the build is what is broken. The everyone-or-just-me counter →
In the Steam support thread on 21 August several people got in after a plain reboot. Launch from the library, not the exe in Explorer — Easy Anti-Cheat often fails to start that way.
Steam Support thread “Game crashes” →
Kernel Easy Anti-Cheat is a separate Steam disclosure. It fights other hooks into the frame. Turn off: the Steam overlay (game properties → general), Discord, NVIDIA / AMD, Xbox Game Bar, MSI Afterburner / RivaTuner. Close RGB suites and third-party “boosters”.
In the same thread a player got in after disabling the Steam overlay and a Chinese IME (Sogou): those inject a DLL into every process and anti-cheat cuts them.
Antivirus should not quarantine the EAC service. Exclude the game folder — do not “turn protection off forever”.
On 21 August in that Steam thread several people wrote that turning Secure Boot on in UEFI finally opened the client. That is not a Bulkhead patch note — it is a player mark. If the crash box vanishes instantly, the step is still worth checking: modern EAC often wants Secure Boot and TPM.
On 12 August 2026 Microsoft shipped KB5121003. Microsoft itself described EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION, freezes and full reboots in games. Other kernel EAC titles publicly tied that to inpoutx64.sys. WARDOGS has no studio letter on this as of 25 August — only put yourself here if the whole machine falls, not one window.
The temporary workaround those studios posted: stop the service and keep it from starting. It is a kernel driver. You do this at your own risk, as administrator. It can break RGB/macro tools that need it.
sc stop inpoutx64
sc config inpoutx64 start= disabledThe space after start= is required. Then reboot. To restore: sc config inpoutx64 start= demand and sc start inpoutx64. We do not delete the driver file and we do not teach an anti-cheat bypass.
This is no longer a crash: you are on the voice-chat screen and Play sat below the edge. Drop the Windows resolution until Play fits, click it, then restore yours. Separate order →
If after files, overlays and EAC you still share the same code as the feed this hour — that is the build, not your PC. Write the Steam Support thread and the studio Discord the LoginId from the crash box if it stayed on screen. Do not install “repacks” and do not fetch a dll from the side.
In Closed Beta 02 a queue and the same crash code across the feed were usually the scale test, not “your PC is broken”. That is not a reason to wipe the GPU driver or poke inpoutx64. Open the hourly report counter first. If dozens of people share the same text in the same minute, send the LoginId to the Steam Support thread and the studio Discord if the crash box stayed up. A local tweak almost never helps until Bulkhead ships a build. Same order in Early Access.
Separate from “everyone”: if only your window dies and friends are already in the menu, update the GPU driver from NVIDIA or AMD, not a motherboard “optimizer”. Close the GeForce Experience overlay, the AMD overlay and Xbox Game Bar before you verify files. Do not install a repack, swap a DLL or hunt an “EAC bypass” — that is a ban and a publisher complaint. We discard that mail.
Launch only from the Steam library. A shortcut to the exe in Explorer often starts the game without the anti-cheat service — the window flashes and dies. After an Easy Anti-Cheat repair, fully quit Steam (not just the close box), open it again and wait for the library to sync. If antivirus just “healed” the game folder, put the files back with Steam verify, then exclude the folder — do not turn protection off forever.
Start with a reboot, Steam file verify and strip overlays. A queue of thousands at the open was, in the recap, a Twitch-drops bug — not your PC. The same error for many people at once means wait for a studio patch. We do not publish anti-cheat bypasses.