Exception Access Violation error has returned

Technical Support
1

Hi anyone who can help,

During the last season of OW (S17) I was unable to play the game for a bit, my game would randomly crash. Sometimes 30 seconds into a game, sometimes I would be able to just play one, or two, and then crash again. Every time I would look at the error logs, it would always say EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading from 0xffffffffffffffff or some random digits. So, I got to work and did everything in my realm to try and figure it out.

After a while, I believed I solved it, I do have a combination of what seems to be the main cause of the issue, A 4090 and i9-139000KS. So I updated my BIOS and have put everything to the intel recommended defaults and from there. That helped a little bit more, but then still had some crashes, and found that now, DXDIAG was showing to other apps that were causing the APPCRASH error. I have uninstalled those and had no issue playing OW since.

However, in the most recent Mid-Season update released yesterday (7/22/25) I have now run into this problem again. I did what I did last time, checked to see if there was a BIOS update (there isn’t), checked if there any other apps, changed polling rate of my mouse, disabled startup programs, rolled back drivers, etc. I have even used both a MEMTest and the Intel CPU tool and again, both have passed with no issues for errors/degradation. Nothing is working and I am very frustrated, this is my main game and really wanted to spend more time after the midseason.

If anyone can help and give advice that would be amazing. Just to reiterate, I have updated bios, turned off OC, ran every CMD repair process, and the game still crashed irregularly. It is too a point that every time I try to run DXDIAG report, there are no new errors except for the ones that was causing me booting issues when I messing with my BIOS, which have now fixed. This is the only game that crashes for me, every other game I have no issues running, both shooters (i.e. CS, VAL, Rivals, COD, Apex) and more story or relaxed games (Destiny, Elden Ring, DOOM) I have attached my files of errors to see if anyone knows something or if I am missing something.

Thanks for anyone giving any advice or help in advance :slight_smile:

(https://pastebin.com/28X6Jt81)

https://pastebin.com/RTDHwZTa
2

The EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION error, especially when reading from 0xffffffffffffffff, combined with the Ntfs.sys Blue Screen of Death and Windows Defender service crashes noted in your DXDIAG, indicates a foundational system instability. The new Overwatch patch is likely the trigger, not the root cause. Your high-end hardware (13900KS/4090) is sensitive to instabilities that other applications may not expose. Overwatch is EXTREMELY sensitive to system stability issues. More so than any other game I’ve ever seen.

This smells like a drive issue to me first and foremost, so let’s rule that out.

Check your drive health.

It would appear you’re running Kingston SSDs.
Download their utility and check your drives. https://www.kingston.com/en/support/technical/ssdmanager

Check your Windows install is not malfunctioning

Open Command Prompt as Administrator
Execute chkdsk C: /f /r. You will need to reboot. Let it complete
After rebooting, open Command Prompt as Administrator again
Execute DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Execute SFC /scannow

If neither of these fix the issue, we move on to other system stability issues.

Double check BIOS settings

You have set “Intel recommended defaults”. This must be verified. Enter your BIOS

  • Disable ASUS MultiCore Enhancement (MCE) . Set it to Disabled - Enforce All Limits
  • Disable XMP entirely. Your RAM will default to a lower JEDEC speed (e.g., 4800MHz). This is a critical stability test
  • Ensure no manual overclocking or undervolting is active

Conflicting apps / Drivers

  • If you have not already, please try a DDU. Let me know if you need instructions.
  • Your reports show drivers for Sonic Studio / Nahimi. This software is a frequent cause of game crashes. Please remove it entirely.

Good luck, and let me know how you go.

3

Thank you so much for the information. I had spent the whole day yesterday testing everything. I have done every single thing you had recommended, and for a bit it looked like it was working, however, the crash has still been a problem. Still the same error just different digits EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading from 0x000002b9ee32f448. Very frustrating but still trying everything to help fix this problem.

4

The next step is to test your RAM, then stress test.

Test your memory for as LONG as possible with Memtest86.

You will need a USB stick.

  • Download Memtest from https://www.memtest86.com/downloads/memtest86-usb.zip
  • Run the imageUSB.exe tool from the ZIP file with your USB plugged in (THIS WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THE USB STICK).
  • Boot from it and let it run as long as possible. 12 hours minimum.

If this detects anything, do not continue. You have faulty RAM.

Stress test your system.

  • Download Furmark https://geeks3d.com/furmark/
  • Download Prime95 https://download.mersenne.ca/gimps/v30/30.19/p95v3019b20.win64.zip
  • Download HWiNFO64 https://www.hwinfo.com/files/hwi_828.zip
  • Run them all at once. Monitor your systems temperatures, and watch for any crashes.
5

Before diving into hours of testing, try underclocking to 52 or 53 MHz on all CPU cores (or maybe even 42). Most WoW players saw an improvement after doing this. The instability may be caused by a damaged CPU running outside the intended voltage before the BIOS updates became available.

6

Thank you for the information and advice. Unfortunately, it seems there is still something wrong. Still crash with the same errors. I plan to honestly, just do a clean windows install and try again with everything, but judging by the amount of posts, with similar issues, it looks like something happened this patch.

If anyone has more potential solutions or believes I should try something else, I am all ears. Again, thank you for the help and please let me know if anything else comes up.

7

There was a compatibility issue with MSI Center.

8

I do not have that installed, but thank you for the information. I’ll see if there is maybe something similar still lingering on my computer

9

I had the same issue with both WoW and OW last year (i9s were faulty iirc) and had my CPU replaced.

Issue has resurfaced after the most recent mid-season patch, only for OW.

Anything to suggest that something has went wrong with the OW patch, as opposed to it being the fault of the CPU again?

To add: I am also currently experiencing the same issue, do not have MSI center installed, and have been running the discord in-game overlay for the past year (am about to try and run without it).

10

I’m still looking around and trying everything possible to fix the game, if anything works I’ll try to remember and reach out with a potential solution.

11

Windows 11 Home Single Language
Intel(R) Core™ i9-14900HX
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
32GB RAM

I’ve been having game crashes recently too.

I don’t think this happened until just a month ago.

I’ve tried installing the latest and older versions of the graphic drivers, but the crashes are still happening.

I think it’s a Windows version conflict issue.

12

I will give it a shot and roll back a windows update and let you know if updates

Update: Just rolled back to the last update before the game started crashing and instantly crashed. I do believe the patch caused an issue that is affected certain hardware combinations. Hopefully a patch is rolled out soon.

13

2 posts were split to a new topic: Access violation crashes

14

Can you post some of the crash reports, and a DXDIAG?
EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading from 0xffffffffffffffff
Typically indicates faulty RAM.

Try step 1 from here

15

I haven’t run into any issues since the patch myself, so I cannot recreate what’s being reported for testing purposes. It looks like there are some people experiencing issues, but it might be related to software or hardware they have in common. Major issues generally result in a flood on the forum and ticket system, but neither of those is happening at this time.

20

What I’ve noticed is that this crash occurs mostly on my main acc. I was able to do placements on my alt acc without issues. My main acc crashes every other game. Maybe my main acc has a specific setting configured that’s bugged? I also have the I9 14th gen CPU and a 3080gpu but I’ve already updated my bios months ago. The bios update addressed the issue that came with these CPUs at launch where the motherboard pushed them beyond their benchmarks. It’s only Overwatch too. My error log folder started filling up starting July 19th, 2025. It’s caused at least 30% of my losses because I lose my ult when I rejoin :frowning:

EDIT: updated my bios to an even newer version, all crashes since midseason patch have completely disappeared :smiley:

21

The BIOS update slowed the degradation of the CPU, but it still has the previously sustained damage before the update and will continue degrading faster than other CPU models. Intel did not not produce any new 13th or 14th generation CPUs to replace failing ones, they just moved on to the next processor generation.

22

If we assume this is a software compatibility issue,

  • do you have App Crash entries in Event Viewer? (even if the app doesn’t seem related to OW2 at all) If you have some for Battle.net, you can try launching OW2 directly.
  • do you have any apps that can produce overlay and are in the background while you play OW2 (even if you don’t have the overlay enabled)?
  • do you have memory core isolation on or off?

For me (similar specs, MSI laptop), the issue was MSI Center, as Nicole mentioned, + Razer Cortex (clups referenced it in another thread) + (unconfirmed) battle.net.
All worked fined with OW2 for years.

Edit: nvm, no crashes for a while after uninstalling those 3 apps, but now back to the same issue

23

i updated my bios and i havent crashed all day. turns out there was an even newer update for my mobo released in march 2025

24

I’m glad you found a fix. I have been on my most latest one (released in may [Version 3001]) and it still not working. Even got a full repair on my windows and I still crashed. My friend who works in IT couldn’t figure it out. But, still trying to find an answer. The more I look, the more it seems like a software compatibility issue. Hopefully something pops up.

Again, I’ll keep trying to find a solution and try something but, thanks to everyone that commented, hopefully we find something.