When VALORANT crashes or will not launch on PC, Riot's support docs tell you to check the minimum specs first and then update your graphics card driver. This guide sticks to procedures that appear in Riot's own documents, checked on October 6, 2026 (the VALORANT crash doc was last updated May 24, 2026), and it does not claim any cause is the most common because Riot publishes no such ranking. If the problem only appears while you record, start with game crashes while recording for the recording side and use this page for the game-side checks.
Symptoms and what Riot's docs say to check
| Symptom | What the official doc tells you to check | Source doc (last updated) |
|---|---|---|
| Crash to desktop with no error code | The shared Riot doc runs through minimum specs, a PC restart, graphics driver, Windows update, Clean Boot, graphics software reset, lower video settings, then a clean reinstall. | Riot 'Troubleshoot PC Game Crashes' (Oct 28, 2025) |
| Black screen on launch | The VALORANT-specific doc gives one order for all four symptoms: specs, graphics driver, DirectX, Windows, graphics software defaults, video settings. | Riot 'Troubleshooting Game Crashes in VALORANT' (May 24, 2026) |
| Closes right after launch, or freezes without crashing | The VALORANT crash doc covers these two symptoms with the same order as the others. Its last section, 'PC Heat and Power', covers the High performance plan, an FPS limit below your average FPS, airflow and dust removal. | Same VALORANT crash doc (May 24, 2026) |
| Freezing, stutter or flicker when you Alt+Tab | Set 'Pressing Alt + Tab shows' to 'Open windows only' under Settings > System > Multitasking, and tick 'Disable fullscreen optimizations' on the Compatibility tab of VALORANT.exe. | Riot 'Troubleshooting Issues When Using Alt + Tab' (May 24, 2026) |
| Update stuck at 0% Download | The doc blames antivirus conflicts. Avast and AVG users turn on Passive Mode, update, then turn it off again; with other antivirus, submit a support ticket. | Riot 'Cannot update and launch VALORANT' (May 29, 2026) |
| An error code popup such as VAN | Search the code in Riot's official table. It carries a banner saying the list is currently out of date, and some codes have their own separate docs. | Riot 'Error Codes and Solutions in VALORANT' (Jun 2, 2026) |
| Blue screen naming vgk.sys on a 13th or 14th gen Intel CPU | Riot says to update the motherboard BIOS (firmware) before any other step. Read the official doc for the details because wrong BIOS settings can cause problems. | Riot 'vgk.sys Error Troubleshooting' (Oct 9, 2025) |
Bottom line: Riot's order starts with specs and the graphics driver
Riot's VALORANT crash doc and its frame rate doc both put the minimum specs first and the graphics driver next, and the shared PC crash doc only slips a restart in between. Windows updates, a graphics software reset, video settings, a Clean Boot and a reinstall follow, in slightly different orders depending on the doc. If FPS only falls while you are capturing video, game recording FPS drop fix covers that angle. Changing many settings at once hides which step helped, so work down the list below and relaunch after each change.
Eight checks in the order Riot's docs suggest
- 1Compare your PC with the minimum specs — Riot's requirements page (May 21, 2026) lists the minimum tier (30 FPS) as an Intel i3-540 or AMD Athlon 200GE, an Intel HD 4000 or AMD Radeon R5 220 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and 64-bit Windows 10 (Build 19041 or later) or Windows 11. All tiers need SSE 4.2 or AVX, DirectX 11 support, and at least 1GB of dedicated video memory; ARM processors, cloud gaming and virtual machines are not supported. Windows 11 also requires TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot, and your PC or motherboard maker, or Microsoft, explains how to enable them.
- 2Update the graphics card driver — Press Windows key+R, type dxdiag, and read the card name and manufacturer on the Display tab. Then install the newest driver from that manufacturer's official site (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel) and restart the PC. Riot's driver doc also points to each vendor's auto-detect tool.
- 3Update DirectX and Windows — Microsoft's DirectX page says that on current Windows the DirectX update arrives through Windows Update, with no separate installer. So install everything pending in Windows Update, restart, and launch again. dxdiag shows the DirectX version you are on.
- 4Restore the graphics software to defaults — On an NVIDIA card, right-click the desktop, open NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Manage 3D Settings, and click Restore Defaults. The VALORANT doc's AMD entry still names the older Catalyst Control Center with Restore Factory Defaults, while the shared crash doc just says to reset NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Software. Anything you tuned by hand goes back to default.
- 5Drop the video settings to Riot's lowest list — The doc's lowest recommended setup is Multithreaded Rendering Off; Material Quality, Texture Quality, Detail Quality and UI Quality on Low; Vignette, VSync, Anti Aliasing, Improve Quality, Bloom, Distortion and First Person Shadows Off; and Anisotropic Filtering at 1x. If the game runs, the shared doc says to raise settings gradually so you can see which one brings the problem back.
- 6Check PC heat and the power plan — Riot's 'PC Heat and Power' section says to pick the High performance plan under Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options and to set ESC -> VIDEO -> LIMIT FPS ALWAYS below your average FPS. It gives no specific FPS number. It also recommends ventilation, dust removal and breaks for the PC.
- 7Run a Clean Boot — Press Windows key+R, run msconfig, open the Services tab, tick 'Hide all Microsoft services', click 'Disable All', then tick only vgc again. Apply, OK, restart, and confirm on the same screen that only Vanguard is enabled. If the game now works, something you disabled is involved, and Riot says to ask that software's support how to run alongside Vanguard. Non-Microsoft antivirus often ignores a Clean Boot, so the doc suggests considering a temporary removal to test. Riot's Clean Boot doc does not describe how to return to normal startup, so after testing, re-enable the services you disabled in the same msconfig Services tab.
- 8Use the Riot Client repair tool, then reinstall cleanly — Sign in to the Riot Client, open the profile icon at the top right, choose Settings, select VALORANT and click Repair, then follow the prompts (Full Repair Tool doc, May 30, 2026). If that fails, close Riot Client, delete the VALORANT and Riot Client folders in C:\Riot Games, empty the Recycle Bin, press Windows key+R and enter %localappdata%, delete the Riot Games and VALORANT folders in AppData\Local, restart, and reinstall (June 1, 2026 doc). If the installer itself fails, a 2023 Riot doc suggests downloading it again and running it with Run as Administrator.
Last checks before you contact Riot
- Windows is 64-bit Windows 10 (Build 19041 or later) or Windows 11, and the CPU, GPU and RAM meet the requirements page.
- The driver you installed comes from the same manufacturer shown on the dxdiag Display tab, and the PC was restarted afterwards.
- On Windows 11, TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot are on, confirmed through your PC maker's or Microsoft's guidance.
- With a 13th or 14th gen Intel CPU and a vgk.sys blue screen, the BIOS update came before every other step.
- You changed one thing at a time and noted the result after each change.
- The firewall allows VALORANT and Vanguard following Riot's 'Your Firewall vs VALORANT' guide.
- If nothing worked, submit a Riot Support ticket with your logs attached.
If you want footage once the game runs again
Once VALORANT is running steadily again, DOR is a free Windows app that auto-detects VALORANT, records the full match to mp4 and makes kill and round highlight clips automatically; on an NVIDIA graphics card it encodes with NVENC by default. DOR does not fix crashes or launch errors, so follow only Riot's official steps above for those. For turning footage into shareable clips, continue with how to clip VALORANT.
Official sources (checked October 6, 2026)
Almost every procedure and number here was checked in Riot's support documents on October 6, 2026. The main ones are Troubleshooting Game Crashes in VALORANT (May 24, 2026), the Riot Client Full Repair Tool (May 30, 2026) and VALORANT PC System Requirements (May 21, 2026). The Clean Boot (May 21, 2026), Alt+Tab (May 24), stuck-update (May 29), error code table (June 2), reinstall (June 1), frame rate (Oct 28, 2025), graphics driver (Oct 23, 2025) and vgk.sys (Oct 9, 2025) docs can be found by title on support.riotgames.com. The note that DirectX updates arrive through Windows Update comes from Microsoft's support article on installing the latest version of DirectX (kb/179113). Documents change, so recheck the update date before you open a ticket.
