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0xc0000142

WARDOGS error 0xc0000142 on startup

Published Data as of Season 1 · 10 Sept 2026

This one is on your machine

The anti-cheat failed to initialise. Rebuilding the EAC install and setting its services to Automatic fixes it.

What you see

A Windows dialog citing 0xc0000142 and wardogsclient-win64-shipping.exe, or a crash dump, the moment you press play.

Also reported as: wardogsclient-win64-shipping.exe · application was unable to start correctly

Fixes, in the order worth trying

Work top to bottom and stop when the game launches. Each step is labelled with how much evidence sits behind it, so you can skip the guesses if the first ones work.

  1. 01 Delete the EAC folder in the install directory, restart the PC, then verify game files

    Confirmed

    The reboot matters. Deleting and verifying without one leaves the old service registered.

  2. 02 Set EasyAntiCheat and Easy Anti-Cheat Epic Games Services to Automatic

    Confirmed

    Open services.msc, find both entries, set Startup type to Automatic, then reboot again.

  3. 03 Run Windows Update, then sfc /scannow, then DISM

    Reported

    In an admin terminal: sfc /scannow, then DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

  4. 04 Reinstall your GPU driver cleanly with DDU

    Reported

    Display Driver Uninstaller in safe mode, then the current driver from AMD or NVIDIA directly.

  5. 05 On AMD, disable the Adrenalin overlay

    Reported

    From the Adrenalin control panel rather than in-game.

Did this fix it for you?

Notes from other players who hit this code. Say what worked, what did not, and which region you are in — a fix that only works in one place is worth knowing about. Best-rated first, and there is no time limit: an answer from the first beta is still an answer.

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0xc0000142 is a generic Windows code meaning a DLL failed to initialise, so it appears under plenty of games for unrelated reasons. Under WARDOGS it is nearly always Easy Anti-Cheat, which is why the fix is a rebuild of EAC rather than anything to do with the game itself.

If it survives all five steps, check whether inpoutx64.sys is on your machine. RGB and motherboard software installs that driver, EAC flags it, and the resulting failure often surfaces here.

Source

WARDOGS Discord, #beta-fixes ↗

If that did not do it