Buying used CPUs can expose users to existing bans from anti-cheat engines, and there’s no way to check for violations before purchase

A gamer from Germany bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and got slapped with a Valorant ban. u/After-Cartoonist-196 shared the problem on the r/PCBauder subreddit [machine translated]; although the processor worked perfectly fine when they ran their computer, they were immediately kicked out after they fired up the game. When they reached out to Riot for support, they found out that the CPU they bought on Sep. 21, 2026, was blacklisted by Vanguard on Aug. 12, 2026, because its previous user apparently cheated on Valorant. However, while the CPU has a ban enforced, Riot Games says the ban duration is four months. In contrast, other anti-cheat engines enforce permanent bans using similar hardware ID systems.

Unfortunately, Riot customer service told them that they cannot reverse the ban, which stemmed from the CPU HWID and has seemingly affected the user’s Valorant account. u/After-Cartoonist-196 said this wasn’t really a big issue for them but also added that “everything else from my system is now also on the blacklist.”

This story has picked up steam on X, which led to Riot Games anti-cheat specialist Phillip Koskinas saying that hardware bans only last for a maximum of four months and that they’re game-specific. Customer support would also tell customers how much time they have left on their ban, and that the anti-cheat system only matches one component on the denylist, not all the parts of the offending player’s gaming PC.

Even though this story might seem unique, other titles and developers also use HWID bans, and incidents like these have reportedly affected other players, too. Ban conditions also vary by developer, too. Easy Anti-Cheat will ban cheaters and users with affected hardware across all the games that use it, while BattleEye enforces permanent global bans. While Vanguard requires Secure Boot and TPM 2.0, Ricochet, which Call of Duty uses, is even stricter as it contacts Microsoft’s servers to confirm that the system remains untampered.

Anti-cheat systems have become controversial recently, especially as some players complained that they’re too intrusive. Others also said that they were too resource-intensive, especially for some systems with an always-on requirement. One Valorant anti-cheat update even went so far as to soft-brick purpose-built cheating hardware, which alarmed a few who thought that the gaming company was killing hardware. However, gamers who are tired of cheaters, trolls, and griefers would agree that anti-cheat systems have become crucial to make online games playable.

Given Koskinas’s comments, u/After-Cartoonist-196 could eventually play Valorant again once the ban expires, or they could get a new CPU and create a new account to enter matches as soon as possible. While this might be a reasonable ending for the Redditor, it still doesn’t fix the risk that gamers face when they purchase used CPUs or GPUs. After all, even if the former owner denies cheating on games or getting banned for doing that, an unlucky buyer getting flagged hardware would have no way of checking this until they get kicked from their favorite title.

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