Windows cannot access the specific device. We couldn’t install a dependency. Vanguard error 1067. If you’ve played League of Legends in the past 24 hours, you’ve probably been hit with one of these many error messages. Dropping alongside patch 14.9, Vanguard – Riot’s divisive Valorant anti-cheat – has been targeted as the reason for all of the above, but Riot is adamant this isn’t the case.
Vanguard is a kernel-level anti-cheat akin to the ones found in other multiplayer games like Fortnite and Warzone. Players have previously made accusations that it’s spyware, but attempting to download Vanguard does result in a message alerting you that it will have access to your PC’s core functions.
In the wake of League of Legends patch 14.9’s release, however, chaos has ensued. Vanguard has been accused of “bricking people’s PCs” and “tampering with unrelated files.” One tweet also claims that it’s asking you to “delete System32” – the directory that houses files that are critical to running the Windows OS.
Riot has posted several responses addressing these issues on Reddit, claiming that the slew of new tech problems do not correlate with Vanguard’s launch.
When one player states that their laptop isn’t booting and won’t draw power from its charger, senior anti-cheat analyst Matt ‘K30’ Paoletti responds “An issue like this wouldn’t be related to Vanguard. If you haven’t restarted your computer in a while, it could related to an issue with your CMOS battery, since that’s what powers the start-up chain.”
Prominent League of Legends personality Nick ‘LS’ De Cesare posted an image of him following K3o’s advice, writing “Update: after taking out CMOS battery and resetting battery was able to finally get into BIOS and fix PC with Vanguard running (you need UEFI and TPM2.0 both enabled in BIOS or your PC won’t load).” He does note that one of his other PCs is “still bricked though.”
A now-deleted response to K3o’s original comment, obtained by X user ‘Yasukeh’ before it was removed by the LoL Reddit’s moderator team, states “sure, multiple users getting the same situation after patching with League with Vanguard, must be the users’ fault. Everyone’s CMOS battery and motherboards decided to shit the bed when Vanguard launched.”
K30 replies with “Vanguard isn’t affecting the Ring -2/SMM level in this manner, and wouldn’t be able to tamper with this step of the boot process. That being said, if you have other cases, you can escalate to me directly just to ensure anything else isn’t going on related to us.”
PCGamesN has reached out to Riot Games for comment and will update this article if we get a response.
In the meantime, however, we have a rundown of all of the current League of Legends error codes and how to fix them, as well as a LoL tier list to ensure you’re locking in the best champion for the job when you get back onto the Rift.
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