Buying used PC hardware can come with an unusual risk: the previous owner’s anti-cheat ban may follow the component.
A Reddit user says they installed a second-hand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and were immediately kicked from Valorant the first time they launched the game. According to the user, Riot Support later confirmed that the processor had previously been linked to a player caught cheating.
Hardware Ban Can Last Up to Four Months
Riot’s anti-cheat system, Vanguard, can apply hardware bans in serious cheating cases.
According to Riot anti-cheat head Phillip Koskinas, these hardware bans can last for up to four months and only apply to the game where the cheating occurred.
Gebrauchte CPU erlaubt kein Valorant
byu/After-Cartoonist-196 inPCBaumeister
That means a Valorant hardware ban does not automatically block other Riot games such as League of Legends or Teamfight Tactics.
The Reddit user said Riot would not manually remove the block, so they may have to wait until the hardware ban expires before playing Valorant on that system.
How Vanguard Identifies Hardware Is Unclear
It is not publicly clear exactly how Riot identifies individual processors.
CPUs normally expose model information to the operating system, but one Ryzen 7 5800X3D is not easily distinguishable from another identical chip using that information alone.
One possibility is that Vanguard uses a broader hardware fingerprint based on several system components or identifiers. Another possibility is the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which Vanguard can access as part of its security checks.
These methods have not been confirmed by Riot.
Vanguard Runs Deep Inside Windows
Vanguard normally runs at the Windows kernel level, giving it deep access to the system to detect cheating software.
Riot has long argued that this level of access is necessary to detect cheats that also operate deep inside Windows.
An update released in June 2026 relaxed Vanguard’s traditional autostart requirement for some systems. Players can now start it alongside a game session if features such as TPM, Secure Boot and memory protection are enabled.
The case highlights an extra risk when buying used gaming hardware: even if the component works normally, it may still be associated with a previous owner’s anti-cheat punishment.
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