Hi Everyone! With this post I want to help people with tips on how to fix lag problems / speed up Flash games or online games in general.
Tip # 1 – use a clean dedicated browser
When we use an internet browser (e.g. Chrome) it remembers / stores a lot of things and we also tend to add various extensions to enhance our browsing experience. But think of browsers like a vacuum machine. They get filled up with all types of things and this can slow down the performance of Flash games, HTML5 games and/or basically any online game by creating lag.
So to fix lag, install a separate browser for your online game and use it only for that game. Many people don’t know there are hundreds of browsers, here are some names so you don’t have to search: Firefox, Chrome, Explorer, Nitro, Opera. Especially those last 2 have been very good for me for games – their speed has been quite fast.
Just remember to do nothing else with your dedicated game browser. Only your game.
Tip # 2 – Browser performance can change
You may have a game working fast for a while and then for whatever reason you star having lag. Here are 2 reasons for that lag and how to fix it:
A) There could have been an update of the browser that creates conflict with the game code.
B) There could have been a game update / a new patch installed and they may have changed some of the game code.
In both cases the solution is the same. Test the game speed / lag again in all the browsers (I usually use only these 4: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Nitro) and see again which one is working the fastest for the game at that particular time.
Once you know which, start using that one as the dedicated browser. It should last you a long time until the next big update.
Tip # 3 – make sure your drivers are up to date
There are lots of drivers on our computers. These are small and large programs which tell everything how it must work. We often don’t know them but “life” would be impossible without them.
Companies constantly release updates for all sorts of drivers. Some update faster, some only once per year. In any case, we should strive to keep all our drivers updated.
I can suggest the tool I am using called Driver Easy which automatically checks what is outdated and updates it (free version has limitations). But you don’t have to pick this one, you can Google to see what other options there are on the market now. I think even antivirus programs have started adding driver update features. You might even already have it without knowing it.
In any case, whatever tool you use, make sure to update all your drivers to help fix lag and speedup flash games or whatever online game you are playing.
Tip # 4 – check in-game settings
Often inside the game you can find settings which slow down the game if your computer or internet are not the best.
Open your game settings and look for anything that adds various graphic effects and turn them off or lower them down.
This should help fix lag or, at the very least, reduce it.
Types of effects to lookout for:
- Anything that makes the weather or scenery animated / look good.
- Anything that flashes / shrines / sparkles
- Any animations that are not required to play the game
Tip # 5 – stop background running processes
Depending on how clean you keep your computer, there can be multiple programs running in the background eating up memory and creating lag for your game without you even knowing about them.
Fixing this can help fix lag and generally speed up your computer.
Open your computer’s processes window (if you have Windows right click the Task Bar and open the Task Manager) and sort the list by memory usage and/or by CPU usage.
Look at the top 10 items which are eating up your memory and see what they are. For a quick fix you can forcefully terminate a process, but it is much better to understand what it is (you can Google its name) and take the steps to stop it properly and permanently.
This could be as simple as changing the hours of when your antivirus runs or changing the frequency of a program to check for updates or do a task (e.g. backup) or it can be a longer process if you discover that you have a virus.
In any case, keeping your computer clean, making sure various programs don’t eat your memory can definitely help fix lag and speedup your online games.
Lastly, it can also help to double-check your current internet speed. If you purchased 100MB download speed but for some reason you are only receiving 30MB that might also be a reason why games are slow on your computer.
There are many free tools that can give you the answer. Pick one of them and click on BEGIN TEST and it will start checking your download and upload speeds.
This report you can compare with your contract / what you paid for. Some difference is “normal” but if there is a large difference you can do 2 things:
- Double check with 1-2 other tools
- Call your internet provider and tell them that you used multiple tools and they all show that you are getting less speed than you paid for.
This happened to me once and they sent a specialist to my home who made some changes after which I got the faster speed which i had paid for. That’s a sort of a real world way to fix lag in Flash games / HTML5 games or online games in general.
