I Fixed My Windows 11 Boot Loops and Crashes From Update KB5083769 — Here Is Exactly How I Did It Step by Step (AMD Radeon)

How I Fixed My Windows 11 Boot Loops and Crashes Caused by Update KB5083769 (AMD GPU — Step by Step)

Platform: Windows 11 version 25H2 | GPU: AMD Radeon

A Quick Note Before You Read This

I am not a professional computer technician. I am just a regular person who spent the last several weeks dealing with constant crashes and boot loops on my Windows 11 machine. I want to share exactly what I did to fix it, step by step, in plain language — because Microsoft is not telling people what is happening or how to deal with it, and a lot of people are suffering through this right now with no help.

This is not me telling you to go do anything to your machine. This is simply me documenting what I did to fix mine. If you choose to use this as a road map for your own situation, that is entirely your decision. Your experience may vary.

What Was Happening

My Windows 11 machine (version 25H2) started crashing and boot looping after installing the mid-April 2026 security update KB5083769. The crashes showed Kernel-Power Event ID 41 errors and WATCHDOG errors in the event logs. What was actually happening is that this update changed the way Windows 11 handles graphics scaling, and it caused my older AMD Radeon drivers (from November 2024) to time out and crash the system.

At first I was only crashing occasionally. Then I made the mistake of trying to fix it WITHOUT pausing updates first — and the update just reinstalled itself the second I rebooted, turning an occasional crash into 4 or 5 crashes in a single day.

So the very first thing you have to do — before anything else — is stop Windows from pushing that update back onto your machine.

⚠️ CRITICAL WARNING — Do This First or You Will Make It Worse

If you remove the bad update WITHOUT pausing Windows Update first, Windows will automatically reinstall it the moment you reboot. I learned this the hard way. Do not skip Step 1.

What I Did — Step by Step

STEP 1 — Pause Windows Updates (Do This FIRST)

1. Click the Start button and open Settings
2. Click Windows Update
3. Find the Pause Updates option and set it to 4 weeks (the maximum is 5 weeks total — keep pushing it and it will gray out when you have hit the ceiling, which means you are good)
4. Now click Advanced Options within Windows Update
5. Go through every subcategory and sub-setting in there and turn off anything that could allow updates to sneak through while updates are paused — check everything
6. While you are in Advanced Options, click on Delivery Optimization, then click Advanced Options inside there
7. Find the Download bandwidth setting and change it from the default (which can be as high as 90% of your bandwidth) down to around 25%. Windows will try to shove dozens of updates at your machine at once at full speed — this is especially hard on older or lower-end systems, and throttling it down helps a lot

Do not move on to Step 2 until updates are fully paused.

STEP 2 — Remove the Problem Update (KB5083769)

1. Click the Start button and type cmd in the search bar
2. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator
3. Type the following command exactly and press Enter:

wusa /uninstall /kb:5083769 /quiet /norestart

4. Wait for it to finish
5. Do not restart your computer yet — finish the next steps first

Alternatively you can remove it through the Control Panel:

• Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features → View Installed Updates
• Find KB5083769 in the list, right-click it, and choose Uninstall

STEP 3 — Run SFC to Repair Corrupted System Files

All those crashes can leave damaged or corrupted files behind. This tool finds and fixes them.

1. In the same Administrator Command Prompt window, type the following and press Enter:

sfc /scannow

2. Let it run completely — do not close the window or interrupt it
3. When it finishes it will tell you whether it found and repaired anything

STEP 4 — Run DISM for a Deeper System Repair

This goes even deeper than SFC and repairs the Windows system image itself.

1. Still in the Administrator Command Prompt, type the following and press Enter:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

2. This one takes longer — let it finish completely
3. Once it is done you can close the Command Prompt window

STEP 5 — Check Your Crash Logs in Event Viewer

This is how I confirmed exactly what was causing my crashes.

1. Click the Start button and type Event Viewer in the search bar and open it
2. On the left side expand Windows Logs and click System
3. Look for red error entries — specifically Kernel-Power with Event ID 41 and any WATCHDOG errors
4. This confirmed for me that the graphics driver was timing out and taking the whole system down

STEP 6 — Check Your RAM with Windows Memory Diagnostic

I wanted to rule out bad memory as a cause so I ran the built-in memory test.

1. Click the Start button and type Windows Memory Diagnostic and open it
2. Choose Restart now and check for problems
3. Your computer will restart and run the memory test automatically
4. When it finishes and Windows loads back up, the results will appear in a notification
5. Mine came back clean — no issues with the RAM

STEP 7 — Update Your AMD Radeon Drivers

This was the key fix that bridged the gap between the old drivers and what the Windows update was expecting. The problem was that KB5083769 changed graphics scaling behavior and my November 2024 AMD drivers could not handle it.

1. Open your browser and go to amd.com
2. Navigate to Drivers & Support
3. Search for your specific GPU model
4. Download and install AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition — I installed version 26.3.1 (released March 2026) and it resolved the conflict completely
5. Follow the installer — it will walk you through the update
6. Restart your computer when prompted

STEP 8 — Verify Everything in Task Manager

After rebooting with the new drivers I opened Task Manager to make sure everything had settled down.

1. Right-click the taskbar and choose Task Manager (or press Ctrl + Shift + Esc)
2. Go through every tab on the left side — Processes, Performance, App History, etc.
3. I was looking for anything that was spiking abnormally or misbehaving
4. Everything looked smooth and normal — no more spikes, no more instability

The Result

I have not had a single crash since completing all of these steps. The machine is running smooth and stable.

The root cause was simple: KB5083769 changed how Windows 11 handles graphics scaling, and it conflicted with older AMD drivers. Removing the update, repairing the damage it caused, and then updating the AMD drivers to a version that could handle the new behavior fixed it completely.

Coming Soon — Part 2: How I Fixed My Intel Laptop

I also have an older laptop running an Intel processor that has been having similar issues. Once I go through the process of fixing that machine I will document it the same way — step by step, exactly what I did. The process will be mostly the same but the driver update portion will be different since Intel uses its own driver update process. I will post that as a follow-up.

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