Hey, sorry you’re both running into this.@KOTEMAN123 @Craken83
That 0xC0000005 / INVALID_POINTER_READ crash basically means the Plutonium bootstrapper tried to access memory and Windows blocked it. It looks scary, but don’t worry, it’s usually down to something simple like antivirus, a broken cache, or missing runtimes.
First thing to check is that you’re actually on Windows 8.1 or newer (64-bit) and that your GPU supports DirectX 11. Older builds or DX10-only cards will crash the launcher right away.
Another really common cause is antivirus or Windows Defender blocking Plutonium. Make sure you add this folder to your exclusions:
C:\Users<YourUser>\AppData\Local\Plutonium
and also allow plutonium-bootstrapper-win32.exe through your firewall.
If that doesn’t help, try clearing the cache. Close Plutonium completely, delete the %localappdata%\Plutonium folder, then download a fresh plutonium.exe from the official site and run it again. You might need to reselect your BO2 folder afterwards.
It’s also worth reinstalling the required runtimes, even if you think you already have them. That means .NET Framework 4.7.2 or newer, the Visual C++ Redistributables (both x86 and x64), and DirectX (June 2010). When these are missing or corrupted, the bootstrapper will just fail instantly.
If you own BO2 on Steam, run a verify of the game files to make sure nothing is corrupted before launching through Pluto.
Don’t forget overlays either — tools like MSI Afterburner, RTSS, ReShade, or even certain screen recorders can cause this exact access violation. Closing them before launching often fixes it.
And if the crash started right after you changed your video settings, try deleting the config files inside the players folder (plutonium_mp.cfg or plutonium_zm.cfg). That resets everything to default and can clear a bad setting.
If you still can’t get it working after all that, it really helps to share a bit more info: your Windows version (press Win+R and type winver), your GPU model, confirm that you excluded Plutonium in Defender, and maybe upload the latest .dmp file from %localappdata%\Plutonium\crashdumps. With those details, people can dig deeper and figure out what’s making the bootstrapper crash.
