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Troubleshooting

Installer

"Windows protected your PC"

See When Windows says "Protected your PC". This is expected for unsigned alpha builds; verify the release source and hash before continuing.

"User Account Control" loops

The installer needs admin rights. If clicking Yes doesn't proceed: 1. Right-click GuardianNodeChildSetup-0.1.0-alpha.1.exe → Run as administrator. 2. If that fails, your Windows account isn't an Administrator. Sign in as the Administrator user first, then run the installer.

Install fails with "Could not download Ollama"

Your network may be blocking the download. Either: - Install Ollama manually from https://ollama.com/download — restart the GuardianNode installer, it will skip the Ollama step. - Use the all-in-one installer on a different network, then move the PC.

Install fails with "Could not pull model"

Same as above — your network is blocking the model pull. After install, manually run from PowerShell: 

ollama pull llama3.2:3b
ollama pull qwen3-vl:8b-instruct
Then restart the GuardianNode backend service: sc stop GuardianNodeBackend && sc start GuardianNodeBackend.

Dashboard

Dashboard URL refuses to connect

  1. Open Services (Win + R, type services.msc).
  2. Find GuardianNode Backend. Status should be Running.
  3. If not, right-click → Start. If it fails to start, check the log at C:\ProgramData\GuardianNode\logs\backend.log.

"Cannot connect to Ollama"

Open PowerShell and run: 

curl http://127.0.0.1:11434/api/tags
If that fails, Ollama isn't running. Start it via the Ollama tray icon, or run ollama serve from a terminal.

Dashboard shows the device as offline

  • Confirm the kid's PC is on and connected to the network.
  • Open Services -> GuardianNode Endpoint Broker -> should be Running.
  • Check C:\ProgramData\GuardianNode\logs\ for broker or agent connection errors.
  • If you're in separated mode, verify the server IP hasn't changed (router DHCP). Pin the server's IP in your router's DHCP settings.

Agent

Tray icon is missing

The tray app runs in the user session, not as a service. If it crashed: 1. Start menu → search "GuardianNode Tray" → click to relaunch. 2. The installer registers a per-user logon scheduled task so the tray starts on future logins.

Tray icon is red

Red means the agent can't reach the backend. Hover over the icon for the specific error.

"Kill agent" / Task Manager → it comes back

That's the watchdog and scheduled-task supervision working as designed. To stop monitoring legitimately, pause from the tray/dashboard or uninstall GuardianNode from an administrator account.

Antivirus flagged the agent

Some antivirus products flag PyInstaller-bundled apps as suspicious because the technique is sometimes used by malware. Add GuardianNode to your AV exception list: - Defender: Settings → Update & Security → Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Exclusions → Add an exclusion → Folder → C:\Program Files\GuardianNode - Other AVs: refer to their docs

Until we have a code-signing cert, this is unfortunately a recurring issue.

Uninstall

"I want to uninstall"

Use Windows Settings or Programs & Features from an administrator account. The alpha does not ship a tested password-gated uninstaller wrapper.

Uninstall hangs or fails partway

  1. Reboot the PC.
  2. Run GuardianNodeChildSetup-0.1.0-alpha.1.exe again — the installer detects an existing install and offers Repair and Uninstall options.
  3. If that fails, manually:
  4. Stop services: sc stop GuardianNodeWatchdog; sc stop GuardianNodeBroker; sc stop GuardianNodeBackend
  5. Delete services: sc delete GuardianNodeWatchdog; sc delete GuardianNodeBroker; sc delete GuardianNodeBackend
  6. Move the install folder aside: Move-Item "C:\Program Files\GuardianNode" "C:\Program Files\GuardianNode.disabled"
  7. Move data aside only after backing up keys: Move-Item "C:\ProgramData\GuardianNode" "C:\ProgramData\GuardianNode.disabled"
  8. Delete scheduled tasks: schtasks /Delete /TN GuardianNodeAgent /F; schtasks /Delete /TN GuardianNodeTray /F
  9. Manually clean up start-menu shortcuts.

Performance

Backend uses too much CPU during classification

This is the LLM doing its job. To reduce: - Switch to a smaller model preset in Settings → Model Status - Reduce OCR frequency in Settings → Capture (e.g. every 10s instead of 5s) - Move backend to a separate PC (see Move server to another PC)

Agent uses too much disk space

By default the agent keeps unflagged OCR cache for 24 hours and screenshots only for flagged events. If usage is still high: - Settings → Retention → lower the alert retention periods - Settings → Storage → click Wipe screenshot evidence

Still stuck

Open an issue at https://github.com/the-vibe-dev/guardiannode/issues with: - The wizard page or screen where you got stuck - The contents of the log file at C:\ProgramData\GuardianNode\logs\, after removing personal information. Do not post child screenshots, private messages, pairing codes, or evidence exports in public issues. - Your OS version, RAM, and the model size you picked

We'll get back to you.