Excited to play the Vanguard beta, when you hit the play button the last thing you expect is to be hit by a persistent fatal error. No matter what you do, you cannot sake off the error and hence, cannot start playing the game. The game currently has a few fatal errors but unlike the normal cause the Call of Duty: Vanguard Error Code 0x1338 (0x18b8) N has an unorthodox cause and fix. The error is caused by a bug in the game that we will talk about in the post. Keep reading for potential solutions to the Vanguard fatal error.
How to Fix Call of Duty: Vanguard Fatal Error Code 0x1338 (0x18b8) N
While this particular fatal error may mean something else and can have other causes as well, at the time during the beta it seems to be caused by the number of friends you have on Battle.Net and Activation account. It’s also possible that there is a conflict between the friend on the Activation account and Battle.Net.
That brings us to the fix, launch the game and without logging into Vanguard, go to the Social Club at the game selection screen. Delete every friend that is not in the Battle.Net list and this should allow you to play the game without getting the Call of Duty: Vanguard Fatal Error Code 0x1338 (0x18b8) N.
Suppose, you have no friends in the Battle.Net, then, you will have to delete all the friends. While this fix has worked for quite a number of reasons, it will not work for all.
As we mentioned, the real cause of the fatal error 0x1338 (0x18b8) N maybe something else and that’s why you are getting this error. We will update the post when fix surfaces or we have a better understanding of the fatal error. Meanwhile, here are some solutions that can potentially fix the fatal error if you are not affected by the Activation friend bug.
- Update the GPU Driver and the Windows OS to the latest available version.
- Lower VRAM usage to about 60%. One of our users shared this fix with us via Facebook.
- Disable On-Demand Texture Streaming in the graphics setitngs of the game.
- Disable the Overlay in software such as Discord, GeForce Experience, etc.
- Do not overclock. OC can be one of the main causes of the fatal error. If you are using any software to overclock, terminate those applications such as MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner, etc.
- If you are using multiple monitors, disable them. Launch the game on a single monitor setup.
- Reset the PC. It’s another drastic step that worked for some users, so try it at your own rick. Simply search Reset on the Windows Search and you will get the option Reset this PC. Go and perform the steps.
Finally, if nothing worked, try launching the game in a clean boot environment. CoD games are known to conflict with all sorts of third-party applications. It’s difficult to pinpoint on application. Hence, we suggest that you launch the game in a clean boot environment. You will find the steps in our other post.
That’s all we have in this guide. We hope you fixed the Call of Duty: Vanguard Error Code 0x1338 (0x18b8) N. We will update the post on a regular basis as more fixes appear or if we are able to replicate the error.