UE5 Crashing on startup due to an unhandled exception: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00007ff840001ac0

someone else had RHI related crashes, you can try the fix he used:

Open your UE5 project folder.
Edit the file located at “path_to_your_UE5_project/config/DefaultEngine.ini”.
Find the line that says “DefaultGraphicsRHI=DefaultGraphicsRHI_DX12”.
Change it to “DefaultGraphicsRHI=DefaultGraphicsRHI_DX11”

if you dont have a project to test this fix on, and the crash happens when opening UE5.exe: open Epic Launcher, then just download some random free project template from Epic market so you can try the fix on DefaultEngine.ini. Then you will atleast know if this is the issue.

another solution: