The win came at a price though as Wanderers lost their influential Spanish midfielder Ivan Campo after an unfortunate clash of heads with his team mate Gary Speed on 17 minutes.
Campo was replaced by the Trotters top goalscorer Henrik Pedersen whilst captain for the day Speed had to keep receiving treatment throughout the game for an open head wound.
Struggling Palace managed the first clear cut effort on goal when a quick fire free kick by midfielder Ben Watson skimmed Jussi Jaaskelainen's left hand post.
Bolton were minus their skipper Jay-Jay Okocha but fellow midfielder Kevin Nolan returned to the team after a minor ankle operation. Nolan had Bolton's first effort with 25 minutes gone but this was not to trouble the Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly in the Palace goal.
That chance seemed to spring the home side into life and for the spell leading up to the half time break the Wanderers were slowly but surely making progress into the final third of the field.
Ten minutes before the break Kevin Davies saw his header sail wide after a good spell of play out wide by the Euro 2004 winner Stelios Giannakopoulos, who had been given a rare start following his goal against West Bromwich Albion two weeks ago.
A few minutes later Stelios himself nearly got on the scoresheet with a fine effort from the edge of the box which looked to be heading for a goal until Kiraly pulled off a spectacular one handed save which nestled onto the roof of the net. The resulting corner by Speed came to nothing despite the best efforts of El-Hadji Diouf at the far post.
Five minutes before the break Bolton had a penalty appeal turned away by referee Neal Barry after Diouf had seemingly been felled in the area by Palace right back Emmerson Boyce. However this was to matter not as Bolton showed their bouncebackability on the stroke of half time.
Bolton's Bruno N'Gotty floated in a free kick from the left hand side and this was finished off by Kevin Davies who somehow managed to head the ball past Kiraly even though he was facing away from goal. Davies had missed the recent game with West Brom through injury but was to celebrate his return to the side with a goal.
The late first half pressure seemed to take the sting out of Palace who themselves looked energetic on the counter attack with the threat of Joonas Kolkka and Andrew Johnson.
After the interval Palace almonst served up an immediate response but left back Danny Granville somehow hit the crossbar from only a few yards out after Watson's free kick wasn't held by the Bolton goalkeeper Jaaskelainen. Needless to say ex-Manchester City man Granville will not want to see an action replay of the incident.
On 53 minutes Palace had their keeper to thank once again after he tipped over a looping header by Bolton substitute Henrik Pedersen. Bolton could not find the second goal to kill their opponents off in a frustrating afternoon.
Palace made a couple of changes as Greek midfielder Vassilis Lakis and veteran Scottish forward Dougie Freedman came on for the hardworking Kolkka and Watson respectively.
Freedman was to get stuck in almonst immediately but his potentially dangerous foul on the Wanderers full back Nicky Hunt went unpunished by referee Barry. The Eagles manager Dowie changed the system slightly so that top scorer Johnson was not left up front on his own hence the inclusion of the ex-Forest man.
With a quarter of an hour remaining Stelios carried the ball down the right hand side from his own half and the ex-Olympiakos man laid the ball off to goalscorer Davies who saw his long distance effort fly just over the crossbar.
Khalilou Fadiga was then brought on for his Trotters debut in place of fellow Senegal national El-Hadji Diouf. Fadiga showed some nice touches when running with the ball and once back to full match practise he is sure to play an important part in Bolton's season.
The final few minutes saw a number of chances and incidents as Palace became a little bit frustrated. A foul by Kevin Davies provoked a reaction which saw Bolton's Kevin Nolan and Palace defender Fitz Hall go head to head.
Henrik Pedersen and Stelios then had late chances which they could not convert but the game had already been won. Ex-Oldham defender Hall once again lost his cool as he clashed with Bolton's Bruno N'Gotty in the final stages.
Wanderers will feel they should have killed the game off with more goals but a win is a win when all said and done even if the performance hasn't been as high as it was a few weeks ago.