How To Fix Computer Freezing When Playing Games

Those of you who have recently gotten a new gaming PC or a gaming laptop would be highly interested in playing all kinds of PC games. This is due to the reason that you can find a wide range of computer games available out there.

Since these different games are of different genres and gameplay types because of which you can certainly find the right one for you.

But to get the best experience while playing your favorite PC games, it is highly important to ensure that the game is running smoothly without any lag or freezes.

Fortunately, if you are facing any issues like freezing, lag, or stutter while playing PC games despite having a high-end computer, then the chances are that it is caused due to some sort of software issues.

Thankfully, if you have a modern gaming laptop or gaming PC, then the chances are that it can most likely handle any video game that you wish to play. It is made possible due to the high-end GPUs and CPUs used by most modern computers.

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With these, you can easily play most PC games even at ultra graphics without any worries. Unfortunately, in some cases, even if you have a high-end computer with all the latest hardware inside, you might still cause freezing issues.

And as you would expect, this can be highly frustrating especially when you have just gotten a new gaming PC or gaming laptop recently.

As a result, you can easily fix computer freezes when playing games by simply getting rid of these software issues. In fact, you can find some of the best solutions to fix computer freezes when playing games down below that you can find by going through this guide until the end.

How to Fix Computer Freezing Issues while Playing PC Games?

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At this point, you must already know the importance of having smooth gameplay when playing video games on your computer. This is especially important when you have an end gaming PC or gaming laptop and you want to get the most out of it.

As mentioned earlier, most freezing and lag issues on gaming laptops are caused due to software issues. However, these software issues can be caused due to a number of reasons on different gaming computers.

Due to this, if you want to fix computer freezes when playing games, you will need to try out various fixes like the following ones:

1. Change Game Graphics Settings

Before you go ahead and change various settings of Windows on your gaming PC, it is always advised to check the game graphics settings as well. This is due to the simple reason that if you are using very high or ultra settings in your game, your computer might not be able to handle it.

Those of you who are using older computers with outdated hardware or entry-level hardware will face this issue even more. Hence, you should first change game graphics settings to fix computer freezes as shown here:

First, launch the game in which you are facing any freezing or stuttering issues.
Then, go to its settings and over to the video or graphics tab where you will find all graphics-related settings.
Now, try changing the graphics preset to either low or very low according to your computer hardware and specifications.
If even that does not fix the lag, you can further lower the render resolution of your game to resolutions like 1600 x 900 or 1280 x 720 which should definitely get rid of any stutter and lag.

2. Update your Computer’s Drivers

If you are familiar with computers, then you must know that all hardware components and devices have a corresponding driver related to it. This driver is there to offer communication between the hardware and various software applications including any game that you might be playing on your computer.

Usually, all drives of your computer will be functioning properly without any issues or lag. But, if you are using outdated drivers or corrupted ones, then you can face all sorts of problems including computer freezes when playing games.

Because of this, you should consider updating your computer’s driver from the Device Manager utility:

To open the Device Manager utility, you have to first press Windows Key + X on your keyboard and select Device Manager from the list.

Then, a new window will open on your screen where you can see all of the devices and their corresponding drivers installed on your computer.

Now, simply expand the different categories like Display Driver, Processor, Network Driver, and other types of devices which can affect your gameplay and game performance.
After that, simply right click on each of these devices one by one and select Update Driver.

Doing this will open up a new window on your screen where you have to select the Search automatically for drives option to start the driver update process

Finally, Windows will automatically download and install the latest updated drivers on your computer. You can then reboot your gaming PC or gaming laptop to fix game lagging and stuttering issues.

3. Clear Temporary Files from Windows

Just like any other operating system, Windows also creates a lot of temporary files for all the various applications and games that you have installed. These temporary files are there to increase the speed of your computer as most of these files get used on a frequent basis.

Although, if there are a lot of temporary files collected on your computer, not all of them might be useful. In fact, they can even result in a performance hit especially when you are running intensive tasks like playing a game on your computer. Thus, it is highly important to regularly clear temporary files from Windows as shown here:

In order to clear temporary files from Windows, you have to first open Windows Run by pressing Windows Key + R on your keyboard.

Then, type temp in the Run window and press enter which will open all the temporary files stored currently on your computer.

Once you are in the temporary folder, simply select all files and press shift + delete on your computer to delete all these temporary files.

At last, you have to reboot your computer to get rid of all computer freezing issues while playing PC games

4. Run a Memory Check in Windows

Whether you are running an application on your computer or trying to play a PC game, all of them rely on your computer’s memory for their function. Any currently open application stores all of its files and data in your main memory so that the processor and GPU can quickly access it without any storage speed issues.

This is also true for PC games that dump all of their files and data into the memory for smooth and proper performance. That being said, if the memory of your computer has any kind of error due to which it is not performing properly, then you will certainly face computer freezes and other stuttering issues while playing PC games.

Fortunately, Windows allows its users to easily check for memory errors as well as fix them via the Memory Check utility. To run this memory checking utility on your Windows gaming computer, you have to follow the given steps one by one

For opening the Memory Check utility, you have to press Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open Windows Run.

In here, simply type mdsched.exe and press enter to open the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool.

Finally, click on the Restart now and check for problems option to make your computer check for any memory issues and fix them.

Your computer will reboot and get rid of all memory errors for successfully fixing computer freezes while playing games

5. Change the Virtual Memory Size Configuration

Apart from the primary physical memory or RAM installed on your computer, Windows also relies on its virtual memory to store the data of the various applications that you might be using at any given time.

This virtual memory feature is there to ensure that even if your physical memory gets filled up, your computer does not slow down. For the same, Windows creates a virtual memory partition on your storage drive and uses that as a backup.

However, the virtual memory feature only works right when it is set up properly. This essentially means that the size of the virtual memory is large enough to store the data of any large PC games that you want to play. Thankfully, Windows allows the user to easily change the virtual memory size if needed as explained here:

To adjust the virtual memory size on your computer, you have to first open Advanced System settings. For the same, press Windows Key + Pause/Break keys on your computer to open Windows Settings

Now, click on the Advanced System Settings option from the menu present on your right hand side which will open a new window on your screen

Then, go to the Advanced tab and click on the Settings button present under the Performance section which will open yet another window on your screen.

Once you are in the Performance Options window, head over to the Advanced tab and click on the Change button present under the Virtual Memory option.

After that, deselect the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives option in the Virtual Memory window.
Then, select the C drive from the drives list which should be your primary boot drive, and change the Space available option to Custom Size.

Finally, change the Initial Size value to the Recommended value shown at the bottom of the Virtual Memory window. As for the Maximum size value, change that to 1.5 times of the physical memory installed in your computer which should be around 12 GB for a computer with 8 gigs of RAM.

Once you are done, click on the Set button and save your settings followed by a system reboot which should significantly improve the gaming performance of your computer

6. Run System File Checker

In a few cases, the gaming performance of your computer might be affected due to possibly corrupted or missing system files. This essentially means that the Windows files used by your computer’s operating system might not be working properly.

As a result, it is highly important to check all system files as well as fix them to overcome any performance issues. Thankfully, this is quite easy to do and not time-consuming at all thanks to the System File Checker utility offered by Windows. You can also run the same on your computer as shown here:

For running the System File Checker utility, you have to first use Windows Search to run Command Prompt as administrator

Once you are in the Command Prompt window, simply type sfc /scannow and press enter to run the System File Checker utility.

This process will take some time as it is going to check all the system files one by one after which all corrupted or missing system files will be fixed. You can then enjoy all your favorite PC games without any stutter or lagging issues once you have rebooted your computer.

7. Clean your Gaming PC or Laptop

Even though most computer freezing issues are caused due to software issues, there is still a slight chance that your computer’s hardware might be the culprit. And this can also happen even if your computer has high end and powerful hardware inside.

This generally happens when your computer is not being cooled properly and your computer is thermal throttling. If you are not familiar with thermal throttling, it essentially means that your computer’s hardware is running at a lower speed to prevent any issues from high temperatures.

Usually, thermal throttling takes place when your gaming PC or gaming laptop is dirty from the inside.

This can clog up all the cooling fans and cooling radiators and heat sink resulting in poor performance. To overcome this issue, you will need to clean your gaming PC or gaming laptop from the inside to get rid of dust from all the cooling parts.

You can either do this yourself or take your gaming PC to a service center to get it opened up and cleaned properly. While you are cleaning your computer from the inside, you can also consider changing its thermal paste since that can harden up and become less effective over time resulting in poor performance due to thermal throttling.

Conclusion

By checking out and carrying out all these various software fixes on your gaming PC or gaming laptop, you should be able to easily fix any issues. Whether you want to fix computer freezes when playing games or just want a smoother gameplay, you can certainly try out these fixes.

Since there are multiple fixes for computer freezes stated above, they all take a different approach to fix computer freezes when playing games.

As a result, you should have gotten rid of all gameplay freezes, lags, and stutters by now. If you have any doubts regarding any of the computer freeze fixes stated above, you can simply leave your queries in the comments section down below.