Call of Duty: Warzone Error Code 0x0000000142220c20 Fix — Shipment Exe Crash
Call of Duty: Warzone
Call of Duty: Warzone Error Code 0x0000000142220c20 — Shipment Exe Crash to Desktop
You're loading into a match — or you're mid-battle — and Warzone just dies. No warning, no error box, just a hard CTD. Sometimes you catch the error code 0x0000000142220c20 in a crash dialog before the game disappears entirely, but plenty of players don't even get that much. It's been hitting players during match loading screens most frequently, and the wave of reports spiked right after a recent seasonal patch. The crash targets the game's main shipping executable — that's what the "shipment exe" label refers to in bug reports. It doesn't discriminate much by hardware. Players on mid-range rigs and high-end builds are both getting hit. That said, Nvidia GPU users and people with outdated Visual C++ installs seem to be running into it more. It can happen once and never come back, or it can loop on every single match load. If it's crashing consistently during loading screens specifically, that's the most common pattern tied to this exact error code.
What Causes This Error
Corrupted or incomplete game files — A bad seasonal patch can drop broken files into your install. The exe tries to reference them, finds garbage, and crashes. Missing or outdated Visual C++ redistributables — Warzone's shipping exe depends on specific VC++ runtime versions. Old or damaged installs cause the process to fail immediately. Outdated GPU driver — Driver versions that predate the latest Warzone update can mishandle the game's DirectX calls and crash the exe under load. Corrupt shader cache — Warzone recompiles shaders after major updates. If that process was interrupted or saved bad data, it crashes during the loading screen rebuild. Ricochet anti-cheat conflict — Ricochet's kernel-level driver can clash with overlays, monitoring tools, or specific system software and kill the exe without a clean error. Antivirus or Windows Defender blocking the exe — Security software flags the shipping executable after a patch modifies it. Mid-launch blocking produces exactly this crash. GPU or CPU overclock instability — Even mild overclocks can trip the exe during the high-load burst of a match loading screen. DX12 instability on specific hardware — Certain GPU and driver combos handle DX12 poorly in Warzone, especially during the memory-heavy moments of loading in.
Step-by-step Fix
Step 1
Open Battle.net or the Call of Duty launcher, click the gear icon next to Warzone, and select Scan and Repair. Let it run completely — don't close it early. A bad patch file is the most common trigger for this error, and this catches it.
Step 2
Download and install all available Visual C++ Redistributables — both x64 and x86 — from Microsoft's website. Search "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable downloads" and grab the latest versions. Restart your PC after installing them.
Step 3
Update your GPU driver using a clean install. In GeForce Experience (Nvidia), go to Drivers, click the three-dot menu, and choose Custom Install > Clean Install. On AMD, run the AMD Cleanup Utility first, then install the latest driver from AMD's site.
Step 4
Delete Warzone's shader cache. Navigate to C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Temp\ActiSoft and clear any folders there. Also check C:\Program Files (x86)\Call of Duty\Data\Shader and delete its contents. Warzone rebuilds them clean on next launch.
Step 5
Right-click the Warzone executable, go to Properties > Compatibility, check Run this program as an administrator, and check Disable fullscreen optimizations. Apply, then relaunch through your launcher.
Step 6
In-game, go to Settings > Graphics and switch the DirectX version from DX12 to DX11. DX12 has known instability on certain Nvidia and AMD configs in Warzone — DX11 is more stable and removes this variable entirely.
Step 7
Add your Warzone install folder — typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Call of Duty\ — as an exclusion in Windows Defender and any third-party antivirus. After a patch modifies the exe, security software sometimes blocks it mid-launch.
Step 8
Open MSI Afterburner or your GPU OC tool and set core clock and memory clock offsets back to 0. Even a modest overclock can fail under the sudden load spike of a loading screen. Run a few matches at stock speeds to confirm it's the cause before re-applying any offset.
Why This Happens
The 0x0000000142220c20 error is a memory address fault — the game's shipping executable tried to read or execute code at that specific location and either found corrupted data, hit a missing file, or got blocked by another process. The post-patch scenario is the most common. When a seasonal update pushes several gigabytes, a partial download or interrupted install can leave the executable or its dependent DLLs in a broken state. The process starts, hits the bad memory reference, and terminates before the match loads. The Visual C++ angle is also real. Warzone's exe links against specific Microsoft runtime libraries. If those libraries are outdated or corrupted — which happens after certain Windows updates cycle through — the exe fails to load its dependencies and crashes before it even gets to the main menu. Ricochet adds another layer of complexity. It sits at the kernel level between the game and the OS. If it conflicts with another kernel-mode driver from an overlay, hardware monitoring software, or a security tool, it can terminate the shipping exe without producing a clean error — just this address fault in the crash log. Activision hasn't released a patch specifically targeting this error code as of recent seasons. Scan and Repair combined with a GPU driver update resolves it for the majority of affected players.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this error happen on console or only PC?
PC only. Console versions of Warzone run on entirely different executables and have different crash patterns. If you're hitting crashes on PlayStation or Xbox, it's a separate issue unrelated to this error code.
Does the fix process differ between Battle.net and Steam for Warzone?
Slightly. On Steam, the scan-and-repair equivalent is Properties > Local Files > Verify Integrity of Game Files. Everything else — driver updates, Visual C++, DX11 switch, antivirus exclusions — is identical regardless of launcher.
I've done every step and it's still crashing on every match load. What now?
Do a full clean reinstall. Uninstall Warzone through your launcher, then manually delete the install folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\Call of Duty\ before reinstalling. If crashes persist after a clean install, submit a report to Activision Support and attach logs from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\Activision.
Will crashing mid-match get me flagged or banned by Ricochet?
No. CTDs from this error don't trigger bans. Your stats and unlocks are saved server-side. You may take a loss in ranked if the crash counts as an abandonment — Warzone handles that inconsistently, but appeals are possible through Activision Support.
How do I prevent this from breaking again after the next big seasonal update?
Run Scan and Repair before your first session after any major update, and let the shader compilation screen finish completely on that first launch instead of skipping it. That catches most post-patch exe corruption before it causes crashes.
Summary
Scan and Repair is the fix for most players — run it first after any patch and see if the crashes stop. If the file check comes back clean and you're still crashing, hit GPU driver clean install and install the latest Visual C++ Redistributables back to back. Those two cover the vast majority of 0x0000000142220c20 cases. If you're still getting it after that, switch to DirectX 11 in the Warzone graphics settings and add your install folder to antivirus exclusions. Running an overclock? Drop it to stock clock speeds and test before assuming it's something else.
