Common Problems Playing Games

1. "THE GAME WON'T PLAY!"

When it comes to playing PC games this is probably the biggest and most frustrating problem someone can run into. I have bought games before that wouldn't play correctly and I had no idea why. When I have this problem there are a few things I do to help me figure out what the problem is and how to fix it.

A. The first thing I do is go the site systemrequirementslab.com which has a very helpful computer application to tell you if you can run the game or not. This will do a scan of what hardware your computer has and compare it to the minimum and recommended specs of the game you want to play. This can be extremely helpful because it is difficult to remember exactly what specs your computer has, and can help pinpoint what you should upgrade if you need to do so.

B. Check the drivers on your computer or graphics card. Sometimes computer peripherals will have a driver update, if you do not have the proper drivers installed it can cause issues with running certain games.

C. Check the in-game settings. Some games are very good at optimizing the setting to what will run best on your computer, but they do not always get it right. If a game isn't running correctly in most games you can bump down the graphical settings to see if it will run correctly.

D. Reinstall the game. Sometimes it is possible that a file got damaged when installing the game or over time. If this is a problem it can be resolved by uninstalling and reinstalling the game. Most games can be installed through the Control Panel of your computer, but if not sometimes you can uninstall the game from the launcher of the game itself.

E. Sometimes unfortunately there are random issues with games that are very hard to pinpoint. If this problem arises you can contact the game company. Many companies have help lines or forums dedicated to helping people that have problems running their games. Usually they are quick to reply and will do whatever they can to help solve your problem.

2. "The game runs choppy online!"

This is another common problem when it comes to gaming, and this is not just reserved for PC gaming. Sometimes your PC or gaming system will run perfectly but you have a lot of problems when it comes to online gaming, thankfully there are some ways to try and fix this.

A. The first thing to do is check to make sure you are getting the correct speeds from your internet provider. You can run an online speed test at speedtest.net which will help you identify your download and upload speeds. If the speeds are slow or not what you are expecting there are a couple things you can do to try and remedy the problem before you call your internet provider.

B. If you have speed problems the first thing I recommend doing is checking your router. Sometimes speed problems are because of an old or faulty router. I recently had some problems with my internet dropping and decided to check on my router. I was using an old router with old wireless technology but I did not think that it was causing any issues. I ended up purchasing a new AC router and it doubled the internet speed I was getting beforehand with my N router. N routers have been around for awhile and AC is newer technology that provides more bandwidth and better signal strength than the N routers. With so many devices hooked up to household WiFi I think it is well worth the upgrade to an AC router as everything will run better.

C. If you discover that the problem is not the router and only your computer has speed issues you can check for any obstructions that might block the wireless signal. Sometimes it is completely random as to what causes interference and I have heard of people who had terrible speeds, moved their computer just a little bit in a different direction and everything worked fine. You can also run a malware scan on your computer to ensure that a virus is not eating up your bandwidth.

D. There is also the possibility of a faulty wireless card in your computer. I had a desktop computer that had a wireless card that randomly stopped working, it took me a long time to identify what the problem was but when I did it was fixed by simply buying a WiFi USB adapter. They are not very expensive and got my computer back online quick and easy.

E. If your problem is not remedied with any of these solutions you may have to contact your internet provider. Unfortunately sometimes there are just issues with the inbound line and it requires a technician to come out and fix it. Sometimes the IP can identify a problem over the phone and figure out if the problem is on their end or if they need to send a technician out.

3. Other Quick Tips To Help PC Performance

A. I highly recommend everyone installs a SSD on their computer. A SSD is a solid state drive that can replace your existing hard drive. The traditional hard drive is a moving part hard drive that spins and reads and writes data, while a SSD does not having moving parts and everything is stored on flash memory chips. Because of the way the data is stored it is accessed much quicker and more reliably than the standard HDD, they are more expensive at the moment but the speed increase is well worth the money in my opinion. I recently swapped my computer over to a SSD and it changed my boot-up time from minutes to seconds. Everything seems to load much faster and I can't imagine ever going back to a regular HDD.

B. RAM Memory upgrade

A. Sometimes upgrading the amount of RAM in your computer can improve performance. You need to find out what kind of RAM you can use first though. To do this you can look in the System Information of your computer which gives you a system summary. In the summary will be a System Model, I used this to look online for how much RAM my computer could support and what kind I should use.