If you are an avid online gamer, you certainly have suffered from game lag and computer freezes. Many have spent hours trying to tweak in-game graphical settings to increase the frame rate and boost the performance of their favorite games. However, in more cases than not, those efforts award the player with only a slight improvement in overall gameplay. Your system might even meet the recommended hardware specs for optimum performance, but the game causes computer freezes when the action gets heavy. However, tweaking the in-game specs and upgrading hardware may not be the best way to overcome game lag and computer freezes. If you are an avid online gamer, you certainly have suffered from game lag and computer freezes. Many have spent hours trying to tweak in-game graphical settings to increase the frame rate and boost the performance of their favorite games. However, in more cases than not, those efforts award the player with only a slight improvement in overall gameplay. Your system might even meet the recommended hardware specs for optimum performance, but the game causes computer freezes when the action gets heavy. However, tweaking the in-game specs and upgrading hardware may not be the best way to overcome game lag and computer freezes.
This irritation may be attributed to conflicting software competing for your system’s resources or improper configuration. Most online games such as World of Warcraft should run smoothly on an average setup. Game manufacturers assure us that their recommended specs should run the game smoothly. However, those recommendations are calculated when the games are tested on PCs optimized for those particular games. There are very few who are willing to dedicate a whole computer specifically for a single game. Nevertheless, there are a couple of steps that you can take to free up more resources for your gameplay. These tips will allow you better to optimize your PC for a smoother gameplay booth online and offline.
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Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #1: Get more bang out of your capacity. There are literally dozens of services running on your Windows operating system. These programs have no respect for your online play. They need bandwidth and system resources just as much as your online games. Many of the programs automatically startup when you log on to the net or at the moment Windows loads. Windows service programs can perform a host of operations from searching for updates, downloading, and even sharing applications with your games. The task is to cut down on the number of services running while you are playing the game to free up bandwidth and resources. This is a great tip to stop game lag and computer freezes. Here is how.
1. Click on “Start.”
2. Click “Run.”
3. Type services.MSc
4. Select “Extended” from the Services Window to view a detailed description. Also, note the status of the service in question.
5. To stop the service, select “Stop the service” or right-click the service, choose “All task,” then click “Stop.”
6. Click “OK.”
Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #2: Turn off your Anti-virus/Anti-spyware programs during play.
I am sure the suggestion scares you. However, these programs are very taxing on your computer. They can cause gameplay lag and computer freezes by initiating a host of small applications and processes during gameplay. Turning these programs off during your gameplay is not entirely risk-free, but you will be amazed at the results by doing so. Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #3: Making sure hardware and software can “communicate” is a significant step that many gamers tend to miss. DirectX is essential to most next-generation Windows games. High multimedia graphics and sound cards require fast lighting APIs, application programming interfaces to deliver high-end graphics and sound. The API acts as a kind of bridge for the hardware and the software. In essence, APIs provide the language for hardware and software to “communicate” with each other. If there is some “miscommunication” caused by improper setup, you will suffer from game lag or computer freezes. The task here is to ensure that your audio and video hardware is properly configured with Windows DirectX technology by using DirectX diagnostics tools. Here is how:
1. Click “Start.”
2. Click “Run.”
3. Type X diag and press enter to load the “Direct X Diagnostic Tool” menu.
4. Click the “Display” and “Sound” tabs.
5. Verify that DX features are enabled, and there are no problems.
Perform the test were the need. If there are any problems, reinstall Direct X and update your hardware drivers. Also, you can open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and viewing the process tab to gauge which services are taking up the majority of system resources. Visit the “Cause of High CPU Usage” page for more details. Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #4: Clean and Organize your Hard Drive. A simple yet overlooked necessity to stop game lag. The faster your game can find files, the less you have to worry about game lag and computer freezes. By defragging your help to cut down on the amount work the hard-drive needs to find files. Cleaning your registry cuts down on the errors and will create more free space for your RAM and CPU to work more efficiently. These two steps are a necessity to stop computer freezes. The link “4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer” will show you how to perform these steps.