Valorant crashing mid-match - or refusing to boot up at all - is an absolute headache. Common causes include corrupted game files, display-driver problems, or background software conflicts. This guide runs through a safe, reversible Valorant crash fix sequence, letting you narrow down the cause without making risky changes to your setup.

Identify the Crash Symptom

Valorant game client showing a crash message and update progress

Before tweaking any settings, figuring out when the game closes can help narrow down why it's dropping out. Not every crash stems from the same issue.

Common crash patterns:

  • Crash on launch - the game closes instantly or hangs before reaching the main menu
  • Crash after a few minutes of play - can be consistent with driver, temperature, power, or memory-stability problems
  • Crash during agent select or loading screens - may be related to background software, configuration, or game files
  • Full system crash or BSOD - indicates a Windows- or system-level problem rather than an ordinary game-only crash; hardware and driver issues are possible causes

When the game drops to desktop without warning, note any error popups, crash report prompts, or error codes. Those details save time whether you're fixing it yourself or filing a Riot ticket.

Symptoms vary pretty wildly. A hard freeze, a quiet desktop drop, or a full system reboot can have different triggers. If your whole PC keeps dropping out, open Windows Event Viewer and check for errors around the crash timestamp. These logs can provide useful clues, but they do not always identify the cause on their own.

Official First Checks

the Riot Client settings menu, with the "Repair Game Files" section and a red-outlined "Repair" button visible at the bottom

Start here. These steps are fast, safe, and cover common day-to-day Valorant crash issues.

  1. Restart your PC and relaunch Valorant clean
  2. Check Windows Update - install available updates, then restart if Windows requests it
  3. Run the Riot Client Repair function - use the repair option to check and repair missing or corrupted game files
  4. Check Riot Vanguard for Vanguard-related errors - make sure Riot Vanguard is installed and running; follow Riot's specific instructions before changing service settings
  5. Disconnect external monitors and nonessential peripherals temporarily to rule out device-specific problems
  6. Allow pending updates for the Riot Client and Valorant to finish before launching the game
  7. Close other launchers and utilities temporarily so you can test Valorant with fewer variables

These seven steps cover common, easily reversible checks. Work through them before trying anything heavier.

Drivers and Files

A Windows Command Prompt window showing the 'sfc /scannow' command being executed, with 'Verification 1% complete' displayed

Graphics-driver errors can result from outdated, corrupted, or incompatible display drivers. The error message alone does not identify which of those causes is responsible.

Cleaning and updating GPU drivers properly:

  1. If a normal driver reinstall has not helped, download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) from a trusted source
  2. Boot into Safe Mode
  3. Use DDU to remove the existing GPU driver
  4. Install the current recommended driver from NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel directly
  5. Restart normally and test Valorant

If the drops started immediately after updating your GPU, rolling back to the previous driver release is often worth testing. Outside your graphics card, check your motherboard manufacturer's support page for chipset-driver or BIOS updates if the whole system is unstable in other games or applications too. Follow the manufacturer's instructions and do not update BIOS firmware solely for an ordinary game crash.

For OS issues, run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth in an administrator Command Prompt first, then run sfc /scannow. These Windows tools can repair corrupted system components and protected files. Once you're done repairing drivers or Windows files, you can run the Riot Client repair again to check the game installation. If you see a graphics-driver crash, test the display driver and Windows files separately rather than assuming the game files are at fault.

Overlays and Conflicts

the Discord application settings with 'Game Overlay' selected in the left navigation pane

Some background overlays interact with game rendering or input and can expose compatibility problems. Test Valorant with them disabled.

Disable these overlays as a test:

  • Discord in-game overlay
  • NVIDIA App or GeForce Experience overlay
  • AMD Software overlay
  • Overwolf and any Overwolf-based apps

This is just an isolation test, not a permanent downgrade. Shut them all off, play a few matches to confirm stability, then toggle them back on one by one to catch the culprit.

Turning off overlays is one of the quickest ways to test for software conflicts - re-enable them one at a time once your game stays stable.

Two other tweaks worth testing:

  • Windows Fullscreen Optimizations - right-click Valorant's .exe file, head to Properties > Compatibility, and check "Disable fullscreen optimizations"
  • RawInputBuffer - this setting was removed from Valorant in Patch 11.06 and is always enabled, so older guides telling you to turn it off no longer apply

It's also worth testing with XMP, DOCP, or EXPO memory profiles temporarily disabled if you're comfortable changing BIOS settings. These profiles increase memory performance and can expose instability on some systems. Active screen recorders and other demanding background apps can cause similar interference patterns, so test with them closed as well.

Isolation Steps

First-person view of Jett's hands in Valorant on the Ascent map

Methodical troubleshooting is what separates an accidental fix from actually solving the problem. The golden rule here is making exactly one change at a time.

Step-by-step isolation process:

  1. Perform a clean boot - launch Windows with only essential services and startup programs, then run Valorant
  2. In Windows Graphics Settings, select the High performance GPU for Valorant when your system has both integrated and dedicated graphics
  3. Disable XMP/DOCP/EXPO in BIOS to rule out RAM instability under heavy load
  4. If a standard graphics-driver reinstall has not helped, use DDU for the driver associated with the GPU Valorant uses, following the GPU vendor's guidance
  5. Check Event Viewer and crash logs after each session to track repeating error codes
  6. Reset Valorant's local configuration by closing the Riot Client and removing the Valorant-related folders under %localappdata% - do not wipe the entire LocalAppData folder, and back up your custom settings first
  7. Test on default in-game graphics settings to rule out problematic configuration changes

Changing one variable at a time helps pinpoint the exact trigger without messing up unnecessary system settings.

If you're dealing with agent-specific bugs alongside game crashes, our Valorant agent guide covers more game-side details worth checking out.

Revert any tweak that doesn't fix the crash. Leaving unnecessary system changes active only makes future troubleshooting harder.

What Not to Do

A wide shot of the Valorant map Ascent, featuring floating islands with buildings and a prominent clock tower

A lot of "fixes" floating around forums break more things than they fix. Here are a few hard boundaries worth keeping.

Avoid registry edits, permanent security changes, or deleting system files - these can cause more harm than good and may not resolve Valorant crashes.

Hard stops - don't do these:

  • Permanently disabling antivirus or firewall - use official application exceptions or follow Riot Support's guided troubleshooting instead
  • Deleting system files or editing the Windows registry - both carry real risks with little payoff for crash fixes
  • Using unofficial third-party tools not explicitly endorsed by Riot or your GPU vendor
  • Disabling Riot Vanguard outside of official repair steps - this can keep Valorant from launching rather than fixing the issue
  • Attempting undervolting, BIOS tweaks, or hardware-level changes without prior experience and a solid fallback plan

Every step in solid troubleshooting needs to be completely reversible. If a proposed fix can't be undone in two clicks, skip it for now.

When to Contact Support

the Valorant support website with the heading "Submit a request" and a dropdown menu showing various request types

If you've gone through the troubleshooting steps above and Valorant still crashes out, it's time to open a ticket with Riot Support.

Reach out when:

  • Crashes continue after the official troubleshooting steps
  • Crashes come with repeated error codes, crash report client popups, or BSOD events
  • Riot Support requests logs, crash reports, or minidump files

Before submitting a ticket, gather everything relevant:

  • Riot Repair Tool logs or other logs requested by Riot Support
  • Minidump files from C:\Windows\Minidump if the crashes include a BSOD
  • Windows Event Viewer logs from around the time of each crash
  • A clear description of recent hardware or software changes, driver versions installed, and every step already attempted

Riot Support might ask for additional system diagnostics after reading your ticket, so be ready to send follow-up info if requested.

One honest note: persistent crashes that survive software troubleshooting can point to an underlying hardware or OS problem - such as unstable RAM, storage issues, or Windows corruption - especially if other games and applications are crashing too. When you hit that wall, running dedicated hardware diagnostics is a sensible next move.