Call of Duty Black Ops 7 PC – Constant 0xC0000005 crashes, only in Ranked Multiplayer

Cherry 40

I'm looking for help with persistent Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 crashes on PC. I've spent about a week troubleshooting and have exhausted most of the standard recommendations.

Problem

COD repeatedly crashes with:

0xC0000005 (Access Violation)

The crashes appear specifically associated with Ranked Multiplayer. They have occurred:

Before a Ranked match starts
During map/loading or introduction screens
A few minutes into an active Ranked match

Regular Multiplayer does not appear to have the same issue.

The crashes also cause Ranked SR losses and increasingly long matchmaking suspensions.

Platform testing

I have tested the same game/account on:

Xbox PC: Crashes
Steam PC: Crashes
Xbox console: Works normally

This makes an Xbox PC launcher-specific problem less likely and suggests something specific to the PC environment/version.

Troubleshooting Already Completed

Game / Windows / Drivers

Verified/repaired COD multiple times.
Completely reinstalled COD multiple times.
Completely reinstalled Windows 11.
Clean-installed NVIDIA drivers and tested multiple versions, including rollback.
Reinstalled AMD B850 chipset drivers.
Updated motherboard BIOS from 2.A20 → 2.A53.
Installed current Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables (x64 + x86).
Tested HAGS On/Off.
Tested Windows power configurations.
Disabled overlays, background capture, unnecessary RGB/background utilities, etc.
Tested Memory Integrity On/Off. Crashes occurred with it disabled as well.
Kernel-mode Hardware-enforced Stack Protection is already Off.
Disabled the integrated AMD Radeon GPU, leaving only the RTX 5070 Ti active.

CPU / RAM / GPU Stability

EXPO tested enabled at DDR5-6000 and disabled at DDR5-4800.
Currently testing PBO explicitly Disabled + EXPO Disabled for a stock CPU/RAM baseline.
OCCT CPU + RAM: 30 min — Passed
OCCT memory: 15 min — Passed
OCCT GPU 3D Adaptive: 15 min — Passed
OCCT VRAM: 8 min — Passed

No hardware errors were reported.

Controller / Peripheral / Kernel Investigation

I use an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

I inspected connected/hidden devices, non-Microsoft services, and loaded kernel drivers while COD was running.

I found no evidence of reWASD, ViGEm, HidHide, Cronus/XIM-style devices/software, or another obvious virtual/remapping driver.

COD's Randgrid.sys component successfully loads while the game is running, along with the normal Xbox/XInput drivers.

Crash Diagnostics

This is where things become unusual.

I configured Windows Error Reporting specifically for cod.exe with:

DumpType=2 → C:\CODDumps

I then reproduced another 0xC0000005 crash, but Windows generated no dump.

After the crash I also checked:

Windows Error Reporting archives — no COD report
Reliability Monitor — no corresponding COD failure
Windows Application log — no corresponding crash event
WHEA hardware log — no hardware error
Windows Defender log — no corresponding security event

I also searched WER purely by the exact crash time and found nothing created around the failure.

Activision's CrashLogGenerator produced diagnostic/DxDiag information but no useful crash stack/dump. Windows diagnostics have also shown a RADAR_PRE_LEAK_64 event involving cod.exe.

I briefly tested Microsoft ProcDump. It successfully attached to cod.exe, observed an 0x80000003 BREAKPOINT, and COD exited. I discontinued that approach because attaching debugging/monitoring software could itself interfere with a RICOCHET-protected process.

Recent Example

August 16, ~2:23 PM — Ranked Hardpoint, Gridlock

COD crashed during map loading with:

0xC0000005

Memory Integrity was disabled and the PC had been rebooted for that specific test. The crash still occurred.

Despite COD displaying its own crash handler, Windows produced no corresponding WER dump, Application event, Reliability Monitor failure, WHEA event, or Defender event.

PC Specs

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
Motherboard: MSI PRO B850-S WIFI
RAM: 32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30
OS: Windows 11 Home 64-bit
BIOS: MSI 2.A53
DirectX: DirectX 12
NVIDIA driver: 610.88
Controller: Xbox Elite Series 2
Headset: SteelSeries, 2.4 GHz USB dongle

What I'm Trying to Determine

At this point I'm looking for crash-specific diagnostics rather than the standard verify/reinstall/update-driver recommendations.

The parts I find particularly unusual are:

The crashes appear to occur specifically in Ranked Multiplayer.
Both Steam and Xbox PC reproduce the issue, while Xbox console works.
COD reports 0xC0000005, but Windows' normal crash-reporting systems don't appear to record the failure.
Extensive CPU/RAM/GPU testing has not produced hardware errors.

I'm particularly interested in whether this could involve RICOCHET/Ranked-specific behavior, PC security/attestation, or another cause of 0xC0000005 that wouldn't produce a normal Windows crash record.

I'd also appreciate suggestions for obtaining a useful COD crash dump/stack trace without attaching a debugger directly to the RICOCHET-protected process.

Cherry 40 Reputation points

2026-08-18T06:08:15.1366667+00:00

Hi everyone, thank you for the suggestions. I wanted to provide an update on where the troubleshooting currently stands.

I have now confirmed TPM 2.0 is enabled/ready, Secure Boot is On, and the system is running UEFI. I also stopped using ProcDump after the initial test, since attaching diagnostic tools directly to the anti-cheat-protected process could affect its behavior.

I tested the system at conservative/stock settings with EXPO disabled (DDR5-4800) and PBO disabled. I've also completed OCCT CPU/RAM, memory, GPU and VRAM testing without errors. The crashes continued under those settings, so a CPU/GPU performance bottleneck doesn't appear to explain the 0xC0000005 failures.

I also completely rebuilt COD's players folder and allowed the game to regenerate its configuration. This initially allowed a couple of successful matches, but the 0xC0000005 crash eventually returned.

The issue also eventually occurred in regular Multiplayer, so it no longer appears to be exclusively Ranked-related. Multiple crashes were extremely consistent, including repeated 0xC0000005 failures at 0x000000014A60C081 in cod.exe.

The biggest development came after I installed NVIDIA driver 591.59, which Activision currently recommends for BO7, using a clean installation and then allowing COD's shaders to rebuild completely. NOTE: This is not the most current driver!!

Since doing that, I've now completed well over a dozen Multiplayer and Ranked matches across multiple maps, modes, and separate sessions without another crash. Previously, I was frequently crashing during the loading screen or within only a few minutes of entering a match.

I'm not calling the issue completely resolved yet because I had also removed some peripherals/software during troubleshooting. I'm now gradually restoring those one at a time while keeping NVIDIA 591.59 unchanged. If stability continues as everything is restored, that should help determine whether the driver was ultimately the key issue.

Thank you all for the suggestions and for helping me narrow this down. I'll update the thread again once I've completed the remaining isolation testing.
Kai-H 26,570 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-18T06:40:16.8433333+00:00

Glad to hear your updates.

If you need anything else, feel free to get back.

Answer accepted by question author

faiza ishfaq 80

I’d also check the CPU/GPU performance relationship while troubleshooting, especially since the system is using a Ryzen 5 9600X with an RTX 5070 Ti. A CPU limitation can sometimes contribute to inconsistent gaming performance, although it would not by itself explain an access-violation crash.

If you want to rule that out as a separate performance factor, you can check your CPU bottleneck here.

For the actual 0xC0000005 issue, I agree with the recommendation to keep the system at stock settings, avoid attaching debugging tools to the anti-cheat-protected process, and provide the CrashLogGenerator results and exact crash details to Activision Support.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Kai-H 26,570 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi, Cherry

The missing Windows dump is not proof of a hardware or RICOCHET failure. WER LocalDumps does not support applications that use their own custom crash reporting, which explains why COD can display 0xC0000005 but leave no WER, Reliability Monitor, or Application event.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Stop using ProcDump, DebugDiag, GFlags, or other tools that attach to cod.exe. With an anti-cheat-protected process, they may change behavior or cause the process to exit.

Confirm TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are enabled and healthy. Press Windows + R, run tpm.msc, then check Windows Security > Device security > Secure boot. These checks are relevant to BO7’s PC anti-cheat requirements.

Rename Documents\Call of Duty\players to players.old, start COD, restart shader optimization, and let it finish before entering Ranked. This removes configuration and shader data that reinstalling the game may leave behind.

Reproduce once with stock BIOS settings and only the controller connected.

If Ranked alone still crashes on both PC launchers, submit the CrashLogGenerator package, exact UTC crash time, Activision ID, map/mode, and this testing summary to Activision Support. A usable stack with private game symbols can realistically be produced only by the game developer.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you.

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