Buying used PC hardware may result in the previous owner's anti-cheat ban being attached to the component, according to reports. A Reddit user reported that installing a second-hand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D caused immediate ejection from the game Valorant.
Riot Support confirmed that the processor in question was previously associated with a player who engaged in cheating activities. Phillip Koskinas noted that hardware bans issued by the system can persist for a period of up to four months.
Riot’s anti-cheat system, Vanguard, possesses the capability to enforce hardware bans when serious cheating instances occur. The Reddit user stated that Riot would not manually remove the imposed block.
Vanguard typically operates at the Windows kernel level for its function. An update released in June 2026 relaxed Vanguard’s former requirement for automatic startup on certain computer setups.
Players can now initiate Vanguard alongside a game session if features like memory protection, Secure Boot, and TPM are enabled.
