About Technology

By Gaelim Holland

If you are an avid online gamer, you most certainly have suffered from game lag and computer freezes. Many have spent hours trying to tweak in-game graphical settings in order to increase the frame rate and boost the performance of their favorite games. However, in more case than not, those efforts award the player with only a slight improvement in overall game play. Your system might even meet the recommend 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 that is 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 that were 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 steps that you can take to free up more resources for your game play. These tips will allow you to better optimize your PC for smoother game play booth online and off-line. .

Stop Game Lag and Computer Freezes Tip #1: Get more bang out of your bandwidth.

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 amount services running while your are playing the game in order 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 game play lag and computer freezes by initiating a host of small applications and processes during game play. Turning these programs off during your game play 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”

This an extremely important step that many gamers tend to miss. DirectX is essential to most next generation Windows games. High multimedia graphics and sound cards require lighting fast 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 make sure 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 dxdiag 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 need. If there are any problems reinstall Direct X and update your hardware drivers. Also you can open the Task Manger 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 you 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.

Without a doubt the habit of upgrading your computer's hardware for the next generation of games will allow take advantage new graphic and sound card technology. However, this act makes PC gaming a more expensive hobby than it really needs to be. Hopefully, the tips above rewarded you smoother game play and will help to end your days of computer freezes and game lag.