[SOLUTION] WoW Error #123 - Memory Acess Violation | HEAP_CORRUPTION | ntdll.dll etc

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1

Hi,

I was experiencing frequent crashes in WoW since 11.1.7. In the 11.2 the game would crash almost immediately upon logging in, which actually made it easier to track down the root cause.

Issue: Game Crashing Due to Custom Spell Icons in WoW

If your World of Warcraft (WoW) client crashes frequently with errors like memory access violation, heap corruption, ntdll.dll faults, or SoundEngine errors, it might be caused by custom spell icons.

Cause:
Having a folder named Interface/ICONS inside your WoW directory containing custom icon files can cause conflicts and crashes.

What happens:
These custom icons can corrupt memory in various ways, leading to multiple errors logged in the error log.txt, including:

  • Memory Access Violations
  • Heap_Corruption | ntdll.dll errors
  • Messages like “This memory block has been corrupted by an out-of-bounds memory write.”
  • D:\BuildServer\B\work-git\wow\Engine\Source\SoundEngine\SE3.cpp 222

Solution:
Remove or rename the Interface/ICONS folder and its contents. This prevents the corrupted or incompatible icons from loading and stabilizes the game.

100% fixed for me, in fact, if I add the folder with custom spell icons back, game crashes immediately

2

There shouldnt be an ICON folder in the INTERFACE folder.

Inside the INTERFACE folder there should be one folder only, called “AddOns”, nothing else. I dont know how did you get that ICON folder.

This is a good example how good is a computer. Lots of tests, etc, and then there is a folder what shouldnt exists.

3

The icons folder originates from installing high-res icons, for example, and isn’t normally related to the crashes (it’s a fairly popular mod).
But since I have the same problem, I’ll give it a try.

4

I can say with 100% certainty that it causes crashes — at least in my case. I had some custom icons with really old files, and sure enough, if I add them back, I crash instantly.