WhyCrashed

application exception

0xC0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

The program tried to read or write memory it doesn't own — the most common crash there is. Usually a bug in the program itself or in a plugin/add-on loaded into it; sometimes bad RAM. In the real world this is the catch-all you see after a game, browser, or Office crash — the faulting module name matters more than the code.

What to do about it

  1. Update the program to its newest version — this class of bug is what patches fix.
  2. Disable or update the program's plugins/add-ons/mods; a faulting module named in the report that isn't part of the program points at the add-on.
  3. Update your graphics driver — many app crashes with this code happen inside GPU-related DLLs.
  4. If many different programs crash with 0xC0000005, test your RAM (Windows Memory Diagnostic).

Where you will see this

Windows Error Reporting writes this code into Report.wer files and app-crash minidumps when a program dies but Windows itself stays up. It is not a blue-screen stop code — for those see the stop-code library.

See which module threw this exception

Drop the program's .wer report or crash dump into the app-crash reader — the faulting module is usually the real story. Parsed locally.

Open the app-crash reader →