How Do I Know If Im HWID Banned?
Three signals identify a HWID ban. You can log into the publisher account but cannot launch the specific game (publisher recognizes you, AC blocks the session). A brand-new account on the same hardware fails authentication at game launch — same hardware, fresh credentials, still locked. The ban notice references "hardware," "device," or "detection of unauthorized third-party software at the system level." If any apply, the ban is keyed to hardware identifiers — not the account.
Distinguishing a HWID ban from an account ban matters because the recovery paths are completely different. Account ban: create a new account. HWID ban: create a new account AND randomize your hardware identity (or replace hardware). Misdiagnosing the ban type wastes money on the wrong recovery — typical pattern is the user creates a new account, gets banned again at first launch, and only then realizes the hardware is the issue.
Three diagnostic signals
Signal one: you can log into your publisher account (Epic, Steam, Battle.net, Riot, Activision) successfully — credentials work, profile loads, you can access store and friends — but launching the specific game fails. The launcher shows an error before the game window opens. This means the publisher recognizes your account as valid; the anti-cheat is the layer blocking the session. Anti-cheats only know hardware identity, so the block is keyed to hardware.
Signal two: you create a brand-new publisher account from scratch (new email, new credentials, never used before), log in successfully, attempt to launch the game, and get blocked. The new account has no history, no friends, no flagged activity — yet the AC blocks it. The only thing the new account has in common with your old banned identity is the hardware. That is a HWID ban by definition.
Signal three: the ban notice mentions hardware. EAC bans include language like "device-level detection." BattlEye bans reference "global ban." Vanguard issues VAN9001 / VAN:Restriction codes. Riot's ban notices explicitly call out hardware-level enforcement. Activision's Ricochet messaging references "device-level" enforcement. NetEase bans reference "this device" — and the NeacSafe coverage of NetEase title-wide cascading bans is documented in our cluster posts. If your ban notice uses any of this language, hardware is the keying.
The cascade pattern
If you have a HWID ban on one EAC-published game, you may find other EAC titles also block you — EAC's ban list is partially cross-game. The same EAC title that banned you (say, Fortnite) shares fingerprint data with other EAC titles to varying degrees per publisher opt-in. NetEase's NeacSafe is the worst case — a HWID ban on Marvel Rivals also locks you out of Naraka: Bladepoint, Identity V, Once Human, and other NetEase games on the same hardware. The cascade pattern is itself diagnostic: if multiple unrelated titles all block you simultaneously starting on the same date, hardware fingerprinting is the common factor.
What is NOT a HWID ban
Account-only ban: you cannot log into the publisher account at all (credentials rejected, account "suspended" or "permanently disabled"). Fresh account on the same hardware works fine. This is keyed to account, not hardware. Recovery is account-level only.
Soft ban / shadow ban: account works, game launches, you play, but matchmaking puts you in pools with other suspected cheaters or AFK kicks fire. Not a HWID ban — typically an account-flag waiting for confirmation or appeal.
Region ban: account locked to a specific region or IP. Fresh account on same hardware in same region also locked. Different identity surface — network, not hardware.
Per-publisher recovery paths
EAC titles: account-level ban appeals go to the publisher (Epic for Fortnite, Apex's Respawn, Facepunch for Rust). HWID bans require either spoofer or hardware swap regardless of appeal. Recovery uses Raw Spoofer to randomize the fingerprint EAC checks against.
BattlEye titles: BattlEye Global Bans propagate across BattlEye-protected games. PUBG, R6, Tarkov all share ban data. Appeals usually fail. Recovery requires spoofer.
Vanguard / Valorant: TPM 2.0 EK reads make Vanguard bans the hardest to recover from. Spoofer does not work because TPM EK is silicon-rooted. The only fix is a CPU change (or motherboard for discrete TPM systems). RawCheats does not sell Valorant cheats for this reason.
NeacSafe / Marvel Rivals: cascading bans across NetEase title catalog. Spoofer recovery works because NeacSafe uses classical fingerprinting per the 0x90.sh driver analysis.
Ricochet / Warzone, COD MW/BO6: classical fingerprinting per the Activision Ricochet Anti-Cheat progress report. Spoofer recovery works.
BO7 with Remote Attestation: Pluton-rooted attestation, no spoofer addresses this. Recovery requires CPU change.
The diagnostic flow
Test the three signals in order. If you can log in but cannot launch, signal one is positive — likely HWID. If a fresh account also fails on the same hardware, signal two confirms HWID. If your ban notice mentions hardware language, signal three confirms HWID. If all three are positive, you have a HWID ban. The deeper what is an HWID ban cluster walks through edge cases and provides decision branches.
Next steps after diagnosis
If HWID banned and the AC is in the spoofer-recoverable list (EAC, BattlEye, NeacSafe, Warden + Ricochet on Warzone / MW / BO6), Raw Spoofer at $4.99/month plus a new publisher account is the recovery path. Cold boot before activating the spoofer per the cold-boot timing rules. If HWID banned on Vanguard or BO7 Remote Attestation, the recovery requires hardware-level changes (different CPU for fTPM/Pluton; different motherboard for discrete TPM). The recovering from a hardware ban workflow walks through the full 11-step recovery process.
Related Pages
Sources
- EAC reverse-engineering repository — adrianyy / Adrian Yarygin
- Ricochet Anti-Cheat Progress Report — Activision
- NeacSafe driver analysis — 0x90.sh security research
- Riot Vanguard official documentation — Riot Games
Related Questions
No. A Windows format and reinstall clears the OS but leaves firmware-rooted hardware identifiers (SMBIOS UUID, motherboard serial, disk serials, MAC addresses, GPU UUID, TPM endorsement key) untouched. The anti-cheat reads these from the hardware, not from Windows. Fresh Windows install presents the exact same fingerprint to the anti-cheat. The real fix is an HWID spoofer (Raw Spoofer randomizes 16 identifiers in 4 seconds) or physical hardware replacement.
Raw Spoofer is RawCheats's in-house HWID spoofer — a signed kernel driver that randomizes 16 hardware identifier categories per session against EAC, BattlEye, NeacSafe, Warden, and Ricochet. It runs as an external process (not injected into the game), supports Windows 10 + 11 on Intel and AMD, and costs $4.99 per month. It does not spoof TPM EK, Pluton, or beat Vanguard — and we say so explicitly.
An account ban suspends a specific game account — your Steam, Epic, Battle.net, or Riot login. Create a new account, you''re playing again. A hardware ban (HWID ban) blacklists your machine''s hardware identifiers — SMBIOS UUID, motherboard serial, disk serials, MAC addresses, GPU UUID, TPM endorsement key. Fresh accounts created on banned hardware get auto-banned within minutes. Hardware bans require either an HWID spoofer (Raw Spoofer randomizes 16 identifiers) or a different physical machine.
Rarely on its own. A new motherboard changes SMBIOS UUID, motherboard serial, and BIOS strings — but disk serials, MAC addresses on USB and discrete NICs, GPU UUID, RAM SPD, monitor EDID, TPM EK, and MachineGuid all carry over. Anti-cheats fingerprint composite matching across 16+ identifiers, requiring 5-8 matches to flag — single-component swap usually leaves enough matching identifiers to re-ban. Full hardware swap or an HWID spoofer is needed.
