It is quite difficult to find a Valorant player who has not witnessed the infamous “A critical error has occurred” error message at least once in the game. Once Valorant hits this stoppage, it will kick you out of any game you are currently playing and show you the error message with an error code. So, are you wondering how to fix this problem on your own? Don’t worry. There are some very easy fixes that you can apply so that you never have to see this error message again.
Fix 1 – Make sure to run Valorant as an admin
Running Valorant as an administrator should help you resolve the issue.
1. Check whether you can find the Valorant icon on your desktop page.
2. If you can, right-click on the “Valorant” on the desktop and tap “Run as administrator“.
[If you can’t find the Valorant icon on your Desktop, you can easily search it using the search box.]
This will run the game with administrative rights.
Once you are in the Valorant game, play an escalation/replication match to test if this works for you.
If the error message doesn’t appear again, follow these steps –
1. So again, right-tap the “Valorant” app, and this time, click on “Properties“.
2. On the Valorant Properties page, head on to the “Compatibility” pane.
4. Simply, check the “Run as administrator” box.
5. Finally, tap “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.
This should permanently fix the issue.
Fix 2 – Automate the vgc service
You can make sure the VGC service is running automatically.
1. You can press the Win key and type “services“.
2. Then, tap “Services” in the search box.
3. On the Services page, look for the “vgc” service.
4. Then, double-tap the service to access it.
5. When the vgc properties open up, set the ‘Startup type:’ to “Automatic” type.
6. Check the service is running. Tap “Start” to start the service.
7. After that, tap “Apply” and “OK“.
This makes sure the service always starts up automatically during your system startup.
Fix 3 – Change the Game Launch settings
There are certain changes that you can make in the game file settings.
1. Appdata folder stores up app files. So, press the Win key+R keys together.
2. Type this in the Run box. Then, click “OK“.
%lolcalappdata%
3. Once the AppData folder opens up, go to this location –
VALORANT\Saved\Config\Windows
4. Inside this folder, double-tap the “GameUserSettings.ini” file to edit it.
5. Once the file opens up in Notepad, alter the “DefaultMonitorIndex” value to “-1“.
6. Then, change the “LastConfirmedMonitorIndex” value to “-1“.
7. After that, click “File” and “Save” to save the file changes.
Close the File Explorer.
Run the game and test if this works.
Fix 4 – Update the graphics card driver
Sometimes, older graphics card drivers can cause this problem for you.
NVIDIA card users
If you are using the NVIDIA card, you can use the GeForce Experience app.
1. Launch GeForce Experience.
2. After that, go to the “DRIVERS” tab.
3. The latest graphics card driver will be downloaded.
Wait for a few minutes for the downloading process to complete.
Just let it download the latest version of the driver.
4. Once it is done, click “Express installation“.
Wait for the GeForce Experience to download and install the latest driver.
AMD card users –
If your machine has an AMD card, you can use the AMD Radeon software to install the latest AMD driver.
1. Launch the AMD Radeon Software. You can just right-click on the desktop and tap “AMD Radeon Settings“.
2. Once it opens up, click on the “System” tab.
3. Then, download the latest version of the AMD driver.
4. After downloading the latest driver, install the latest driver.
You should just restart your computer.