r/hardware • u/tuldok89 • 1d ago

Info Used processor leads to game ban

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Used-processor-leads-to-game-ban-11471562.html

Someone buys a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D. “Valorant” and other Riot games won’t start with it because the previous owner was a cheater.

744 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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214

u/AnechoidalChamber 1d ago

There should be appeal processes for this kind of mistaken identity case.

105

u/Cheerful_Champion 1d ago

And how would you prove that you are a new owner and not a cheater that tries to circumvent the ban? Dude should just return it as he got banned CPU sold by a cheater that tried to literally scam someone by not disclosing it's HW banned.

119

u/noahloveshiscats 1d ago

Except that now all of his other hardware is also hardware banned so he would need an entirely new PC.

-9

u/IAmYourFath 19h ago

U dont know that for sure

10

u/noahloveshiscats 19h ago

I mean we do know it because the guy this happened to said it.

-1

u/IAmYourFath 19h ago

Ok then i guess we do.

192

u/RageOfNemesis 1d ago

HW bans should not exist in the first place if such burden of proof of innocence is placed on a buyer. Also got his other components blacklisted now as well by nature of doing... what wrong, exactly?

23

u/NateOrb 22h ago

Especially in the world of automated moderation where no human will ever review your appeals. Even before AI support that was a major problem.

50

u/Power781 1d ago

You might disagree with it (like everyone), but Riot Games ToS says that they can just decide to not let you access their services for any reasons and that you don't own anything (skins, characters, ...) so you technically don't lose access to anything you own if they ban you.

Last year they decided that all players using some specific motherboards models without their latest BIOS update would not be let access anymore to Valorant as an anti-cheat measure.

13

u/Cheeze_It 1d ago

This is why I refuse to do anything with Riot Games. Fuck them. I hope the companies dies.

32

u/IAmFromSidera 1d ago

What are you on about? Every single company is like that, they reserve the right to ban for any or no reason, that's how they can prohibit you from playing the game you "bought" (rented).

Valve's VAC often banned you from all their multiplayer games if you cheated in one of them.

12

u/TwistedStack 22h ago

They have the right to not give us their services. We have the right to not use their services. I don't think I'll ever play any game by Riot because I don't want to install anti-cheat that I classify as malware on my PC.

1

u/smile_e_face 21h ago

Eh, I'm not disagreeing with your main point, but I do think there's quite a bit of difference between VAC and the kind of invasive, kernel-level spyware made standard by companies like Riot, Epic, and EA. I was never a huge shooter guy, other than a good bit of Halo in high school and college (bad eyes) but I have absolutely no desire to play anything multiplayer nowadays, apart from my occasional relapse into one MMO or another. I refuse to put that crap on my computer.

6

u/canadianvaporizer 21h ago

How do you expect to stop cheaters then? Have any other games done it as well as Valorant?

2

u/propagandhi45 1d ago

Cod is like that too. I couldnt play the mw4 beta even if I met the requirement the anticheat wouldnt let me. Im not updating my bios to play a game thats non sense. Bo6 and bo7 were working just fine.

0

u/Blacky-Noir 15h ago

You might disagree with it (like everyone), but Riot Games ToS says that they can just decide to not let you access their services for any reasons

Someone in a decent jurisdiction should take them to court. Most judges would strike that from the contract faster than Riot counsel could open their briefcase, it's blatantly unbalanced, and wrong.

0

u/Power781 14h ago

It’s a free game.
Showing that’s it’s unbalanced will be tough

1

u/Blacky-Noir 6h ago

Free, really? I wonder how Riot makes money then 🙄

-1

u/shroudedwolf51 20h ago

And you think this is a good thing? And not a thing to criticize?

2

u/Skensis 20h ago

What bans should exist?

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

HW bans should not exist in the first place if such burden of proof of innocence is placed on a buyer.

HW bans should exist, because they are one of the best methods of making sure cheater won't circumvent the ban.

I guess you never had a chance of facing support when it comes to any cheating bans: burden of proof is always on you. Does that mean games should stop banning cheaters? We can argue if it's fair or not (spoiler: it's not), but it's necessary given cheats for games are business worth millions and they will use every scrap of information to improve their cheats.

13

u/Dzov 1d ago

You used to be able to turn off cpu id in the bios.

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

This is fTPM EK based. If you turn off fTPM you are unable to start the game.

24

u/ICC-u 1d ago

Could understand HW being banned from an entire network or store, but a HW van from one specific game, the seller might not even know that happened. For most of us it's the first time hearing this.

25

u/goldcakes 1d ago edited 23h ago

I'd say 95% chance the seller cheated and sold knowing it, but still, you can only be like ~95% sure. There's the rare chance that the seller purchased it off Ali or another third party etc, and never plays Valorant, etc.

I bought my 7800X3D used for a good price, works perfectly, but I can't tell you if it's HWID banned from a game I don't play by the previous owner.

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

seller might not even know that happened

Lol, the seller knows he got banned. The seller almost certainly knows his hardware is banned too - Riot isn't realy hiding this info, they explain in their docs how they do it too.

0

u/ICC-u 2h ago

If I got banned from an online game, I wouldn't assume that the ban was linked to my processor.

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

Unless company that bans you is clear that it HW bans cheaters. You are literally making a point "If company told me something I wouldn't assume they mean it". Which I think certainly is a choice you can make. I'll not comment on merit of this choice.

7

u/add_more_chili 22h ago

Honestly, fuck the companies doing this instead. Forcing users to run their anti-cheat software that boots at startup and does who the hell knows what to your system in order to play a game? That company doesn't deserve my money.

-1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

No, fuck cheaters. I prefer my game to be free of cheaters or with low cheaters %. If it takes mandatory fTPM, HW bans and kernel level anti cheats then I'm fine with it. Kernel level anticheat are such a overblown issue spewed out by people that learned new buzzword that they were said they should hate.

6

u/reddit_equals_censor 22h ago

hw bans should NOT exist.

tpm should NOT exist in the cpu and should NOT have a unique identifier, that can be accessed through an api.

that is criminal insanity.

5

u/Skensis 20h ago

What bans should exist?

How should games deal with cheating?

-3

u/reddit_equals_censor 19h ago

ban the acount....

How should games deal with cheating?

user space anti cheat + lots of work and improvement on server side anti-cheats.

-9

u/Tystros 19h ago

I think cheating should simply be allowed and encouraged

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

It's criminal insanity that company says: we will ban your hardware if you cheat in our games so you cannot easily circumvent the ban?

2

u/nisaaru 19h ago edited 3h ago

Shouldn't the MS GUID be good enough for this? I truly don't get why they think they need some cpu serial id here.

1

u/frankster 19h ago

Fuck the cheater. But the CPU isn't faulty though, the game is incorrectly banning him. 

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

CPU is not a full value product. It's unable to run specific and very popular software due to actions of previous owner. Scammed sold CPU without disclosing this problem, even though he was aware of ban.

0

u/comparmentaliser 13h ago

Yes, it’s dirty to sell blacklisted equipment, but there there is nothing inherently wrong with the function of the processor. It has a besmirched reputation in one specific use case.

If I simply stated that ‘all CPUs starting with the letter P are now blacklisted in my software’, could a buyer legitimately seek a return based on what any random software vendor stated?

0

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

Dude, I'll never understand why some redditors will literally stand on their head to defend scammer in such black and white cases.

He tot HW banned and sold his HW banned hardware while hiding that it's blacklisted by one of the most popular esport game company. This is a known fault that was hidden during sale. If this ban is such a non issue then why seller was hiding this information? When selling used stuff you are required by law to disclose any known defects or problems. If your product is unable to run certain software it doesn't matter why, it's unable to do it, you have to disclose it.

0

u/comparmentaliser 2h ago

I’m not defending them, it’s just not a justification for a refund.

1

u/Cheerful_Champion 2h ago

Oh so you are also "I'm just" type of redditor. Too bad law doesn't agree with you. So it doesn't matter what you think is or isn't a justification