How to Fix Palworld Unhandled Exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION Crash

Palworld is one of those games that can easily steal an entire weekend. You log in planning to organize your base for thirty minutes, then suddenly you’re breeding Pals, hunting rare creatures, and redesigning production lines five hours later. That’s exactly why the Unhandled Exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION crash is so frustrating. Few things kill the mood faster than seeing your game disappear to the desktop just as you’re about to catch a rare Pal or finish building your dream base.

I’ve run into this error myself, and judging by discussions across gaming communities, I’m definitely not alone. Some players crash immediately after pressing Play, while others can play for an hour before everything suddenly freezes. The good news is that this isn’t usually a sign that your PC is dying. In most situations, the crash comes down to a software conflict, damaged files, outdated mods, or unstable hardware settings.

The fixes below are the ones that consistently appear in community reports and have helped thousands of players get Palworld running again.

Why Does EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION Happen in Palworld?

Despite the scary name, the error is actually pretty straightforward. It means the game attempted to read or write data in a section of memory that Windows wouldn’t allow it to access. In practice, several different problems can trigger that situation. Some are caused by the game itself, while others depend on your PC configuration.

How to Fix Palworld UE-Pal Error Crash: Complete Troubleshooting Guide

The most common reasons include:

• Old or incompatible mods
• Corrupted game files
• Graphics driver issues
• CPU instability on high-end systems
• Broken shader cache
• Problems loading complex save files
• Conflicts with Unreal Engine settings

What’s interesting is that two players can receive the exact same error message while dealing with completely different underlying problems. That’s why there’s no universal ’one-click’ fix.

Remove Old Mods Before Trying Anything Else

If you’ve ever experimented with Palworld mods, this should be your very first step. Even after uninstalling mods, leftover files often remain inside the game directory. Those forgotten scripts may still load when the game starts, especially after a major update. Since Palworld receives regular patches, older modifications frequently become incompatible.

How to Remove Leftover Mod Files

1. Open your Palworld installation folder.
2. Find the Paks directory.
3. Look for a folder called LogicMods.
4. Create a backup if you want to keep your files.
5. Delete the original folder completely.

After that, check the Win64 folder for DLL files that don’t belong there. Files such as custom injectors or optimization wrappers have caused launch crashes for plenty of players.

Tip: If the game suddenly works after removing mods, don’t reinstall everything immediately. Add your mods back one at a time so you can quickly identify which one is causing the crash.

Verify the Game Files

This solution isn’t exciting, but it’s surprisingly effective. Game files occasionally become corrupted after updates, unexpected shutdowns, or interrupted downloads. Even one damaged asset can make Unreal Engine crash during loading.

Steam compares every installed file against the official version stored on its servers. If anything is damaged or missing, it automatically downloads a fresh copy. Players using Xbox Game Pass can achieve the same result through the Verify and Repair option inside the Xbox application.

I’ve fixed several Unreal Engine games using nothing more than file verification, so it’s always one of the first troubleshooting steps I recommend.

Disable Dynamic Global Illumination

One of the more interesting community discoveries involves Unreal Engine’s lighting system. Certain graphics cards simply don’t seem to cooperate with Dynamic Global Illumination after specific updates. Instead of improving visuals, it creates memory allocation issues that eventually end with an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION crash.

Edit the Engine Configuration

• Press Windows + R.
• Type %LOCALAPPDATA%.
• Open the Pal folder.
• Navigate to Saved > Config > Windows.
• Open Engine.ini.

If you find the following line:

r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=1

Change it to:

r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=0

If the line doesn’t exist, simply add it to the bottom of the file. You probably won’t notice a dramatic difference in graphics quality, but many players report noticeably better stability afterward.

Try Loading a Temporary Multiplayer World

This workaround sounds strange, yet it’s one of the most fascinating community fixes I’ve seen. Some large bases contain dozens of active Pals, countless production machines, storage containers, and moving NPCs. When all those assets load simultaneously, memory usage spikes dramatically.

Community Workaround

• Create a brand-new world.
• Enable multiplayer.
• Spawn into the game.
• Wait until your character appears.
• Return to the main menu.
• Load your original save.

For whatever reason, initializing the multiplayer environment appears to prepare the engine differently, allowing problematic saves to load successfully. It’s definitely not an official solution, but enough players have confirmed it that it’s worth trying.

Run Palworld with Administrator Rights

Windows security sometimes blocks applications from accessing certain temporary files or cache locations. Changing a few compatibility settings can eliminate those permission conflicts.

Recommended Compatibility Settings

• Run as Administrator
• Disable Fullscreen Optimizations
• Windows 8 Compatibility Mode

Locate Palworld-Win64-Shipping.exe, open its Properties menu, and enable all three settings listed above. They won’t magically solve every crash, but they can remove unnecessary Windows-related obstacles that interfere with the game’s operation.

Update Your Graphics Driver

Graphics drivers are easy to forget until something starts crashing. Palworld relies heavily on Unreal Engine features, including modern rendering technologies that regularly receive optimization updates from GPU manufacturers.

Before assuming the game itself is broken, install the newest graphics driver available for your GPU. Whenever possible, choose the clean installation option instead of installing over an older driver. This is especially important if you’ve recently upgraded your graphics card.

Intel 13th and 14th Generation CPU Stability

This solution only applies to certain systems, but it has become increasingly relevant. Owners of processors such as the Intel Core i9-13900K and Intel Core i9-14900K have reported instability across multiple Unreal Engine games, not just Palworld. The issue often appears during heavy CPU workloads and can trigger sudden memory access violations.

If you’re using one of these processors, consider updating your motherboard BIOS, synchronizing Performance Cores in the BIOS settings, or slightly reducing maximum turbo frequencies using Intel’s official utilities. It may sound strange that reducing performance can improve gaming, but stable hardware always delivers a better experience than unpredictable crashes.

Don’t Ignore Background Software

Sometimes Palworld isn’t actually responsible for the crash. Background applications can inject overlays, hook into DirectX, or monitor hardware in ways that interfere with Unreal Engine.

If the crashes continue, temporarily disable unnecessary software, including RGB control applications, hardware monitoring tools, FPS overlays, game recording software, and GPU tweaking utilities. Launching the game with as few background processes as possible can help eliminate software conflicts that are otherwise difficult to identify.

Keep Your Save Files Safe

One lesson I’ve learned after years of playing survival games is to always keep backup copies of important save files. While EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION doesn’t usually corrupt saves, repeated crashes always introduce some level of risk.

Creating occasional backups only takes a few moments and can save hundreds of hours of progress. Considering how much time players invest in breeding powerful Pals, collecting rare resources, and building enormous automated bases, backing up your save folder is a habit that’s well worth developing.

Final Thoughts

The Unhandled Exception EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION error may look intimidating, but it’s usually much easier to fix than it first appears. Instead of trying random solutions, work through each potential cause methodically until you identify what’s triggering the crash on your system.

If I had to recommend a troubleshooting order, I’d start by removing outdated mods, verifying the game files, updating graphics drivers, and disabling Dynamic Global Illumination. Those four solutions alone seem to resolve the majority of reported crashes. If the problem remains, continue with compatibility settings, the multiplayer loading workaround, and CPU stability adjustments.

Palworld is simply too enjoyable to let one frustrating crash ruin the experience. Once everything is running smoothly again, you can get back to exploring the world, expanding your base, collecting stronger Pals, and losing yourself in one more adventure that somehow turns into an entire evening.