Issue where Karma XPU instantly crashes PC. No warning, crash is instantaneous (no hope of recovering unsaved progress as far as I can tell). This problem occurs for all January Windows updates.

Windows 11 January Updates
January 13, 2026—KB5074109 ← Problematic (according to a comment, not confirmed myself)
January 17, 2026—KB5077744 ← Problematic (confirmed)
January 24, 2026—KB5078127 ← Problematic (confirmed)

Related Forum Posts:
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/102904/ [www.sidefx.com]
https://www.sidefx.com/forum/topic/102985/ [www.sidefx.com]

The most frequent case I've noticed is when I display a Karma render node after the viewport is already in Karma XPU. Copy-pasting nodes from other files then switching the viewport to Karma XPU can also lead to instability. The issue may have something to do with caching as after my computer full restarts and I rebuild the same setup it often works without issue.

If anyone has found any ways of reducing the likelihood of a crash (or has an idea of the cause), please comment below.

KB5074109 is the one causing the crashing for me.

rourkepalmer
January 24, 2026—KB5078127 ← Works (as far as I can tell?)

even KB5078127 crashes for me
attached is a repro kit that we've passed on to Microsoft. Are you able to repro the issue with this?

brians
attached is a repro kit that we've passed on to Microsoft. Are you able to repro the issue with this?

I just messaged you with a video link.