AMD Radeon Black Screen After KB5124008? How to Fix It

Your Radeon card worked fine in August. After the September 8, 2026 Patch Tuesday update, the screen goes black for a few seconds, the PC freezes on the desktop, or AMD Software pops up a driver timeout report. You are not the only one seeing this, and a new GPU driver alone won't solve it.

Here is what went wrong, how to confirm it on your PC, and the steps to get a stable display back today.

Key Takeaways

• KB5124008 (builds 26200.9445 and 26100.9445) triggers black screens, freezes, and driver timeouts on several Radeon RX 6000, 7000, and 9000 cards.
• The September 14 emergency update, KB5129195, did not address the AMD problem, and neither did the September 22 preview update KB5124010.
• Older AMD drivers don't help in most reports. Uninstalling KB5124008 is the most dependable fix right now.
• If you want to keep the update, disabling Multi-Plane Overlay and raising the TDR delay reduce crashes on many systems.

What Is Causing Black Screens on AMD GPUs After KB5124008?

The September 2026 cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 is the common factor. Radeon owners began reporting black screens, display dropouts, and GPU driver timeouts within days of installing it, often while browsing or watching video, not only in games.

Windows Latest collected reports covering the Radeon RX 6600, RX 7700 XT, RX 7800 XT, RX 7900 GRE, RX 7900 XTX, and RX 9070 XT. Users said switching to older Adrenalin drivers made no difference. Microsoft has not confirmed the bug on its KB5124008 support page or its release health dashboard as of September 26, 2026.

This update had a rough month in general. It also broke File History backups, USB audio devices with a Code 10 error, and Secure Boot on some HP laptops. The KB5129195 emergency update fixed Remote Desktop and a few other problems, but not the Radeon one.

How Do You Know KB5124008 Is Behind Your Problem?

Check three things: your build number, your update history, and when the crashes started.

1. Press Windows + R, type winver, and press Enter. A build of 26200.9445 (25H2) or 26100.9445 (24H2) means KB5124008 is installed. Builds 26200.9550 and 26100.9550 mean you also installed the optional KB5124010 preview, which carries the same code.
2. Open Settings > Windows Update > Update history and look under Quality Updates for 2026-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 (KB5124008). Note the install date.
3. Open Event Viewer, go to Windows Logs > System, and filter for Event ID 4101 from source Display. Each entry reads "Display driver amdkmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered." A cluster of these starting on or after your KB5124008 install date is a strong match.

If your GPU was stable before the update and the 4101 events begin right after it, treat the update as the cause and move to the fixes below.

How Do You Fix the AMD Black Screen From KB5124008?

Uninstall KB5124008, then pause updates until Microsoft ships a fix. This returns you to the August build, where the Radeon driver ran without timeouts.

Uninstall the update from Settings

1. Open Settings > Windows Update > Update history.
2. Scroll to Related settings and select Uninstall updates.
3. Find Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5124008) and select Uninstall, then confirm.
4. Restart when Windows asks.

If KB5124008 does not appear in the list, the update was bundled with a servicing stack update, and Settings hides it. Use Command Prompt instead:

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator.
2. Run DISM /Online /Get-Packages /Format:Table and find the package name containing RollupFix with version 26100.9445 (or the 9550 version if you installed the preview).
3. Run DISM /Online /Remove-Package /PackageName: followed by the full package name you found.
4. Restart the PC.

Uninstall it when the screen stays black

When the desktop goes black before you get the chance to click anything, use the Windows Recovery Environment.

1. On the sign-in screen, hold Shift and select Power > Restart. If you don't reach the sign-in screen, turn the PC off during boot three times in a row, and Windows opens recovery on the fourth start.
2. Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Uninstall Updates.
3. Choose Uninstall latest quality update and follow the prompts.

Pause updates so it doesn't come back

Open Settings > Windows Update and pick a duration from the Pause updates menu. Windows 11 Home and Pro allow up to five weeks. Two to three weeks gets you past the October 13 Patch Tuesday, and you'll see whether Microsoft lists an AMD fix before you resume.

How Do You Keep KB5124008 and Still Stop the Crashes?

Some people need the security fixes and don't want to roll back. On those systems, three changes cut down on timeouts for many Radeon owners. None of them patches the underlying bug, so expect fewer crashes, not zero.

Disable Multi-Plane Overlay

Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO) is a Windows display feature with a long history of conflicts with AMD drivers, and its failures look the same as these black screens.

1. Press Windows + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm.
3. Right-click the right pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it OverlayTestMode.
4. Set its value to 5.
5. Restart the PC.

To undo it later, delete the OverlayTestMode value and restart.

Give the driver more time before Windows resets it

Windows resets the GPU driver if it stops responding for two seconds. Raising this limit lets a stalled Radeon driver recover before Windows kills it, which turns some black screens into a short stutter.

1. In Registry Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers.
2. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named TdrDelay.
3. Select Decimal and enter 8.
4. Restart.

Back up the registry key first by right-clicking GraphicsDrivers and choosing Export.

Turn off Radeon features one at a time

In AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, open the Gaming > Graphics tab and switch off Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Chill, and Enhanced Sync. On the Display tab, turn off AMD FreeSync and Virtual Super Resolution. If you applied an undervolt or overclock under Performance > Tuning, reset it to default. Test for a day after each change so you know which one made the difference.

Should You Reinstall the AMD Driver?

Do a clean reinstall once, after you've tried the steps above. Rolling back to an older Adrenalin release didn't help most people with this bug, but a driver left half-updated by Windows Update produces the same black screens, so it's worth ruling out.

1. Download the current WHQL-recommended Adrenalin driver from AMD's driver page. Skip optional or preview releases.
2. Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) from its official site, Guru3D.
3. Disconnect from the internet so Windows Update doesn't install its own AMD driver in the middle of the process.
4. Boot into Safe Mode: go to Settings > System > Recovery > Advanced startup > Restart now, then Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart, and press 4.
5. Run DDU, select GPU and AMD, and choose Clean and restart.
6. Install the Adrenalin driver you downloaded, then reconnect to the internet.

To stop Windows from swapping your driver again, open System Properties > Hardware > Device Installation Settings and select No.

When Will Microsoft Fix KB5124008 for AMD GPUs?

No fix date exists yet. Microsoft has not added the AMD issue to the Windows 11 release health page, and neither KB5129195 nor the KB5124010 preview mentions Radeon GPUs in its notes.

The next scheduled cumulative update is Patch Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Before you resume updates, check the "Known issues" and "Improvements" sections on its support page for a Radeon or display driver entry. If one appears, install it and remove the OverlayTestMode and TdrDelay registry values afterward so you're running stock settings again.

Until then, the order to follow is simple. Confirm the 4101 events, uninstall KB5124008, pause updates for two to three weeks, and use the registry changes only if you decide to keep the update.