Tired of Interrupted Games? Try These Fixes

When you’re trying to play a game on your computer, there’s nothing more frustrating than lag time.

08:40 28 May 2024

When you’re trying to play a game on your computer, there’s nothing more frustrating than lag time. It can happen at the worst moments, like when you’re just about to complete a move you’ve been trying to make all day, or you’re winning the battle against a big boss. A small lag can be enough of a disruption to ruin your game.

The good news is you don’t have to put up with lagging graphics and other glitches. With a good computer and a solid internet connection, you should be good. 

Below is a list of several solutions that many people have used to solve their interruption issues.

1. Buy a gaming laptop

There are an endless number of laptops on the market made by a variety of brands, so you might not have purchased yours just for gaming. If you bought your current laptop for work, school, or any other purpose, it’s probably not built with specs that support gaming.

A gaming laptop is built with the components needed to sustain the long-term use of intense resources, including graphics and sound. The processors are also much faster than laptops made for general purposes.

There are always laptops on sale online, so look for something within your budget and make sure it’s powerful enough to handle the games you play. However, don’t just buy a computer based on price because sometimes higher prices are inflated and lower prices reflect a sale or a clearance item that will work just fine.

2. Upgrade your old laptop

Even if you have a gaming laptop, if it’s old, there’s a good chance it’s not powerful enough and that is likely the cause of your issues. An older or slow computer is prone to lagging, whether you’re offline or playing with friends on the internet. It won’t matter how fast your internet is when your laptop is really slow.

No matter what type of laptop you buy as a replacement, make sure it’s an upgrade in terms of specifications. It’s tedious to make note of specs for a handful of computers, but it’s necessary to ensure you get the right device.

3. Get faster internet

If you have a laptop that can keep up with your need for resources, the only other block you’ll face is slow internet. If your internet is slow and you’re playing games online, your games will lag. They say you only need a minimum download speed of 3 Mbps, but that’s pretty slow. For the best experience, you should have at least 25 Mbps and ideally between 50-100 Mbps. If you play live games with others, you’ll also need fast upload speeds.

Right now, you have far more options for internet than ever before. Most cities already have the fiber optic infrastructure for cable through companies like Comcast, but you can also get home internet through mobile phone carriers like Verizon. In that case, the connection comes from the cell towers and can be exceptionally fast.

Other fast internet options include satellite internet through local providers or Starlink, which is global. Which internet service is right for you will depend on your location, whether or not it’s actually available for your address, and what plan you can afford. 

4. Hard-wire your internet connection

You probably take wireless internet for granted since it’s always on and available to use on any device in just a couple of seconds. However, wireless internet isn’t as fast as wired internet. Hard-wiring your internet is the easiest way to instantly increase your internet speed. Depending on your connection, you can increase the speed by at least 50%-300% in some cases.

If you’re using Wi-Fi, chances are you already have a modem/router combo. To hard-wire your gaming device(s), you’ll need different cables depending on what device you’re wiring. For a laptop, you only need to connect an Ethernet cable from your router to your computer, and a cat6 cable is usually ideal. You can do the same with most satellite internet providers.

If you want to hard wire a mobile device or a laptop or desktop that doesn’t have an Ethernet port, you just need an adapter. For example, if your laptop has a mini-display port, you can get a mini-display to Ethernet adapter. If you’re using a tablet, you’ll have to look for an adapter that has a compatible port on the other side of an Ethernet port.

Don’t let technology ruin your gaming experience

Technology isn’t perfect, but you don’t have to settle for lag time. Upgrade your device and internet connection to take your gaming experience to the next level.