VGC service is required for Vanguard to run properly. Thus, if the VGC service gets disabled or blocked by the antivirus software or any third-party software, you will encounter the error code VAN 81 with the error message referring to the VALORANT has encountered a connection error. Please relaunch the client to reconnect,
1. Restart VGC Service
VGC service is a part of Riot Vanguard, which should be running in the background properly, as without a vanguard, you cannot play VALORANT. Since VGC is an essential service for vanguard, it should be running properly in the background. Therefore, If it fails to start with Windows, you will get the error code VAN 81. Follow the step to check whether the VGC service is running or not.
2. Enable VGC Service to start with Windows
It is possible that the VGC service is not set to start with Windows, leading to this error message. To start VGC with Windows, follow the steps.
3. Restart Your PC
If you haven’t restarted your computer yet, then go for it because it is possible that Vanguard has failed to start properly. Hence, restart your computer to re-initialize the Vanguard. Once you have restarted, check if the error persists. If it is, then move on to reinstalling Vanguard.
4. Reinstall Riot Vanguard
VAN 81 error mostly occurs due to a problem with Riot Vanguard, which prevents it to initialize at the startup of Windows. To fix this, we will try reinstalling Riot Vanguard, which will fix any corrupted files, preventing Riot Vanguard from running properly.
5. Allow Riot Vanguard into Firewall Settings
Your Windows Firewall can interfere by blocking the VGC service or Vanguard files, which results in this error message. Therefore, try allowing Riot Vanguard from the firewall settings to see whether it helps or not. To allow Riot Vanguard, follow the steps:
6. Disable third-party antivirus software
If you use any third-party antivirus software, it is possible your third-party antivirus is blocking the VGC service. In some cases, third-party antivirus software blocks third-party programs if they consume high memory usage. Hence, try disabling it temporarily using the following steps. The following steps may vary if you use different antivirus software.
7. Reinstall VALORANT
Even though this error should be fixed after trying all the solutions, in case the error persists, the last solution is to reinstall VALORANT. Reinstalling VALORANT will replace all the corrupted files with the new ones, along with the files of Riot Vanguard.
