Do you know why does my laptop freeze when playing a game?
If your laptop or desktop computer freezes or hangs while playing a video game, it may be due to heat. If the CPU or GPU overheats, the computer will stop working to protect the hardware from physical damage.
Video games and other graphics-intensive applications strain the central processing unit (CPU) and the graphics processor (GPU). Computer ventilation and internal cooling systems need to prevent component overheating, but they can still occur.
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How do Laptops Get Excessive Heat?
There are many reasons why your laptops may overheat when playing games. It’s inevitable, as long as your laptop is old enough. Here are some of the reasons:
- Most laptops rely on fans for cooling. These fans have a limited life and will eventually stop working. Then it needs to be replaced.
- Your laptop heat index may increase based on local temperature and humidity changes. Your geographic location and time of year (winter, summer) play a significant role.
- Insufficient or blocked airflow to the laptop means that the laptop cannot remove heat properly.
- Dust accumulated in the computer and various components (CPU, graphics card) can trap heat and reduce its cooling ability by using a heat sink.
These factors can create a situation where the temperature gradually increases until the computer cannot withstand heat stress.
What are the Signs of Overheating Laptops?
- It boots up without any problems, and you can log in. There are no apparent problems.
- Regular computer tasks such as word processing, browsing the Internet, etc., are not problematic.
- You can play a particular game for a while without any issues when you want to play it.
- Without warning, the computer suddenly crashes and reboots in the middle of a game.
How to Prevent Your Laptop from Freezing while Playing Games?
Problems related to overheating on laptops can often be fixed by yourself. Most of the time, you won’t need to spend any money. Follow these methods:
1-Lowered in-Game Settings
Slow frame rates can cause your computer to freeze. This happens when you push the boundaries of hardware, whether it’s a CPU or a GPU.
- Slightly lowers the overall quality and texture of the game
- Set the game settings to low or medium instead of high or super.
Although the frame rate will be smoother, this method slightly affects the game’s mood.
2- Disable Background Programs
The game requires a significant amount of memory and processing power to run smoothly. Unwanted or unwanted programs can continue to run in the background, causing memory vault freezing issues. You can disable them to free up RAM and processing power.
- Open the task manager dialog box by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys simultaneously.
- The “more details” arrow will display a list of all the processes running on your computer.
- Check which processes occupy the most CPU, Memory, and GPU.
- Find out if they are unimportant. Turn them off with a right-click.
3- Thermal Imaging Check
Overheating your graphics card or processor is a dangerous risk to your game. The computer automatically reduces performance and protects itself from damage to compensate for the trouble.
With a screenshot (OSD), you can use MSI Afterburner to check thermals while playing games using screenshot (OSD). Here are some other ways you can do to test the stability of your system.
- CPU stability: If the CPU is inefficient or unstable, it can cause overheating issues. You can monitor temperature readings in real-time using tools like Core Temp.
- GPU Stress Test: The game’s appearance depends on your graphics or video card. Overheating can slow down your graphics card performance, make it unstable when playing games, and lead to random drops in frame rate. Tools like FurMark help you compare performance by performing GPU stress tests.
- Clean dust on your laptop: Your computer may overheat because the internal hardware is covered with dust. It can happen if you use your computer for a long time.
- Check the PC fan. High heat can occur if the system fans are not running. You can make sure the fan power cord is well connected or replace the old fan with a new one to improve cooling.
4- Check Your Hardware
Your current PC must meet the minimum system requirements for the game you are playing. Otherwise, you will need to upgrade.
- Check the status of your hard drive. A lousy drive can lead to a terrible gaming experience. It can also lead to system-wide failure. There is software like HardDiskSentinel that can check the health and performance of your hard drive.
- Check the power. When your PC isn’t powerful enough, the entire system will crash or slow down to compensate for the loss.
5- Increase the virtual memory size
Those who play heavy online games or are professional gamers will probably have more memory. 8GB is enough for games alone, but that’s not the case considering programs running in other backgrounds.
- Virtual memory can improve system memory and performance when physical memory is exhausted.
- Search for View Advanced system settings by pressing the Windows icon.
- Click on the Advanced tab and then click on the Settings button in the performance section.
- Press the Change button in the Advanced tab of the Performance Options window.
- Select the Custom size radio button and uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drive options.
- For the paging file, enter the Initial size and Maximum size you want. Choose the system drive.
- When you use paging, your virtual memory will increase. Click OK.
Final Words
As you can see, there are several ways to prevent your laptop from freezing while playing games. In general, these methods are effective in solving this problem quickly. However, it is difficult to say that these methods apply to all in-game computer crashes. If these methods do not work for a particular user, it is best to seek professional help. We hope these ways solve the problem effectively and enjoy a smooth gaming experience.
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