Vanguard(Valorant) destroyed my graphics card?

[DerGunter]

Hi,

I've played Valorant now for a few week and everything was ok. Yesterday I started a custom game with some friends and my pc crashed. It wasn't able to restart and the automatic repair didn't work. I started windows in save mode and disabled vanguard from autostart and everything seemed fine. Today I started my pc again and it crashed. After starting in save mode again and this time uninstalling vanguard and valorant I hoped the problem was solved. But pc crashed a few times again although it starter right back up. This was 10 hours ago. It's been running fine until now. PC crashed again few minutes ago and started again. Now my graphics card spikes randomly to 100% every few seconds and freezes my computer for maybe 3 seconds.

I'm really worried that valorant and in specific vanguard destroyed my gpu. Dont know what to do. Only thing I can thing of is reinstalling windows and hoping for the best.

Ideas on how to solve this would be really appreciated.

[Kilrah]

Software destroying your hardware? No.

But hardware failing on its own can happen at any time. 

[DerGunter]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

Software destroying your hardware? No.

But hardware failing on its own can happen at any time. 

Haven't had any issues for years. And after vanguard crashed my pc a dozen times they start know. Cant really believe that but I'm no expert maybe it destroyed my windows

[SpookyCitrus]

You have to go into your program files into the Vanguard folder and run the uninstaller, uninstall valorant too, remove all related files to both off of the PC. Vanguard is terrible, it doesn't actually detect hacks and only causes problems with legitimate software. If you don't fully uninstall it then it will still have issues, use DDU to uninstall your graphics drivers afterwards and then reinstall using AMD adrenalin or Nvidia Geforce Experience depending on your card. I had a similar issue with Vanguard wigging out my RGB and the control software for my peripherals. So my mouse and keyboard would not work and all of my RGB was going nuts. Similar process to you, didn't have any problems after completely uninstalling it from program files and reinstalling my RGB software and drivers.

[DerGunter]

I feel really dump but just updating my graphics driver seems to have solved the issue.

It's my first time using this forum and this experience was great. Thanks guys. I thing this is now my go to place for computer stuff no need for reddit anymore.

[SpookyCitrus]

24 minutes ago, DerGunter said:

I feel really dump but just updating my graphics driver seems to have solved the issue.

It's my first time using this forum and this experience was great. Thanks guys. I thing this is now my go to place for computer stuff no need for reddit anymore.

Glad to hear it has fixed your issue, if you need anymore help feel free to come back, we enjoy helping others with problems that need fixing.

[DerGunter]

8 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Glad to hear it has fixed your issue, if you need anymore help feel free to come back, we enjoy helping others with problems that need fixing.

Well here I am again.

My PC just crashed again. Tried to restart itself didn't work. Started it in save mode to restart it Manuel( dont know what else to do in save mode) but didn't work. It says windows wasn't loaded right and asks me if I want to go into advanced repair options or has restart again. Dont know what to do...

[SpookyCitrus]

Just now, DerGunter said:

Well here I am again.

My PC just crashed again. Tried to restart itself didn't work. Started it in save mode to restart it Manuel( dont know what else to do in save mode) but didn't work. It says windows wasn't loaded right and asks me if I want to go into advanced repair options or has restart again. Dont know what to do...

Next thing you could try is a fresh install or an inplace upgrade of Windows. Download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsofts website and run it. Should have an option to install Windows 10 and if you follow the steps through it it will reinstall Windows 10 over itself and fix any corruption while still keeping programs and apps, however if it's an app or program causing the issue it may not resolve it. A fresh install may be the best way to fix it for sure, and then just download or install valorant.

[DerGunter]

Just now, SpookyCitrus said:

Next thing you could try is a fresh install or an inplace upgrade of Windows. Download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsofts website and run it. Should have an option to install Windows 10 and if you follow the steps through it it will reinstall Windows 10 over itself and fix any corruption while still keeping programs and apps, however if it's an app or program causing the issue it may not resolve it. A fresh install may be the best way to fix it for sure, and then just download or install valorant.

Windows isn't starting at all. So should I do this in save mode?

[SpookyCitrus]

1 minute ago, DerGunter said:

Windows isn't starting at all. So should I do this in save mode?

I don't think you can do an inplace upgrade in safe mode. You may just want to format and reinstall.

[DerGunter]

5 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

I don't think you can do an inplace upgrade in safe mode. You may just want to format and reinstall.

Never done that before can I just do it in the normal windows settings? Or do I have do do something special because of save mode?

[SpookyCitrus]

13 minutes ago, DerGunter said:

Never done that before can I just do it in the normal windows settings? Or do I have do do something special because of save mode?

You could but you will have to do the option that deletes everything, and it's not the same as using a windows install USB to format and reinstall.

[DerGunter]

10 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

You could but you will have to do the option that deletes everything, and it's not the same as using a windows install USB to format and reinstall.

I'm saving the last bit of important data right now so I'm fine with deleting everything. Do I just have to go into update and security and recovery and start it?

[SpookyCitrus]

3 minutes ago, DerGunter said:

I'm saving the last bit of important data right now so I'm fine with deleting everything. Do I just have to go into update and security and recovery and start it?

If you type reset in the start menu it should have a reset this PC option.

[DerGunter]

17 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

If you type reset in the start menu it should have a reset this PC option.

Resetting in save mode is not possible... found it in the troubleshooting thing but it says there is a problem with factors resetting and it doesn't do it...

[SpookyCitrus]

28 minutes ago, DerGunter said:

Resetting in save mode is not possible... found it in the troubleshooting thing but it says there is a problem with factors resetting and it doesn't do it...

If you have a USB drive you can create a Windows installer using the Windows 10 Media Creation tool, boot into the installer using the boot menu on startup(usually F11 or F12) and then go through the standard install process. When it get's to the drive selection, delete all partitions and install on the main drive after all partitions are empty and it just shows the drive it's self with no extra partitions.

[DerGunter]

8 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

If you have a USB drive you can create a Windows installer using the Windows 10 Media Creation tool, boot into the installer using the boot menu on startup(usually F11 or F12) and then go through the standard install process. When it get's to the drive selection, delete all partitions and install on the main drive after all partitions are empty and it just shows the drive it's self with no extra partitions.

Never done this before but I'm trying it

[SpookyCitrus]

8 minutes ago, DerGunter said:

Never done this before but I'm trying it

Make sure your backup drive or the drive you have your data you want to keep it on is unplugged when deleting the partitions or you could accidentally delete them as well.

[DerGunter]

1 hour ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Make sure your backup drive or the drive you have your data you want to keep it on is unplugged when deleting the partitions or you could accidentally delete them as well.

Just installed windows with the USB drive everything was going great but after the installation finished the pc crashed again...

Same error massage: DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION

I'm so frustrated. It's like 2 am where I live so I'm going to sleep. Hopefully there is no hardware related problem...

[SpookyCitrus]

11 minutes ago, DerGunter said:

Just installed windows with the USB drive everything was going great but after the installation finished the pc crashed again...

Same error massage: DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION

I'm so frustrated. It's like 2 am where I live so I'm going to sleep. Hopefully there is no hardware related problem...

The most common cause of the DPC Watchdog Violation is out of date or bad SSD firmware or hardware incompatibilities. I've never updated the firmware of an SSD personally, so that may be it. I'd also check if there are any bios updates for the motherboard, and chipset for the CPU. Both can be found on the motherboards manufacturer webpage in the support tab. Typically when you do a fresh install of Windows it will rule out software issues. Other than the firmware for the hardware components that have it. So that would be bios firmware, ssd firmware, and gpu firmware. If there wasn't an issue until the SSD was installed it could be that. If you could link or list the particular drive you have myself or another user that has before can try to help you flash an updated firmware on it.

[DerGunter]

6 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

The most common cause of the DPC Watchdog Violation is out of date or bad SSD firmware or hardware incompatibilities. I've never updated the firmware of an SSD personally, so that may be it. I'd also check if there are any bios updates for the motherboard, and chipset for the CPU. Both can be found on the motherboards manufacturer webpage in the support tab. Typically when you do a fresh install of Windows it will rule out software issues. Other than the firmware for the hardware components that have it. So that would be bios firmware, ssd firmware, and gpu firmware. If there wasn't an issue until the SSD was installed it could be that. If you could link or list the particular drive you have myself or another user that has before can try to help you flash an updated firmware on it.

Some one suggested to swap the sata cable. Did that and pc started. First I checked for the SSD driver but it was up to date. Tried to install the graphics driver after that and when ist was almost finished the pc crashed again...

When starting its says windows was apparently not able to load. Same as before

 

Dont know how to get to my drivers when I cant start windows

[Kilrah]

Unfortunately that suggests there IS a hardware problem. 

Maybe run a memtest86 check... also try removing any overclock you might have.

[DerGunter]

29 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Unfortunately that suggests there IS a hardware problem. 

Maybe run a memtest86 check... also try removing any overclock you might have.

I thing its probably my gpu I have a GTX 780 and I just installed windows again and while installing the graphics driver the pc crashed again. Is there something to check if the gpu is broken?

[SpookyCitrus]

7 hours ago, DerGunter said:

I thing its probably my gpu I have a GTX 780 and I just installed windows again and while installing the graphics driver the pc crashed again. Is there something to check if the gpu is broken?

Test it in another computer or if you have integrated graphics in your CPU test the computer without the GPU installed. If it crashes in another computer or the computer doesn't crash with the GPU you removed then that's your problem.

[DerGunter]

2 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Test it in another computer or if you have integrated graphics in your CPU test the computer without the GPU installed. If it crashes in another computer or the computer doesn't crash with the GPU you removed then that's your problem.

Just found an old Radeon 7800 from my brother. Put it in and reinstalled windwos. Everything seems to work just fine. Really happy right know. New GPU is already on its way (GTX 1660 Super) and a new PSU just in case. Thanks a million for the great help.