Is my laptop good enough to run? Freezing problem [SOLVED]

labortory

I just bought a new laptop to play League on the go like a true nerd. And I thought I got the minimum system requirements to play. I started a game and played fine on max settings with 60 fps and everything, no problems whatsoever. The 2nd game I played, almost every time there was a team fight, my laptop would freeze up for about 10 seconds and make an obnoxious loud, collaboration of sounds until the screen was restored. Even after lowering the settings all the way, this still happened.

I don't completely understand tech things, but since it was running fine. smoothly, no problems on max settings, is it possible that my laptop technically can not run the game still?

I have a Lenovo with 4GB of RAM, Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6100U CPU @ 2.30 GHz processor. And an Intel HD 520 integrated graphics card.

ste2000

Intel graphic card not the best for gaming.

labortory

ste2000 said:

Intel graphic card not the best for gaming.

But is it odd at all that it runs it completely smoothly? and then randomly freezes?

kjempff

Could be so much, including that pretty low hardware you described.
Some things to try: use network cable instead of wifi, disable (or better yet uninstall) antivirus, always play with power cable connected (or the cpu may throttle down), disable automatic windows update, maybe monitor cpu temperature to see if it becomes too hot and temp throttles down, update gfx drivers.

Quizzical

This is why you ask for help on what hardware to buy, rather than running off and buying something random.  Well, apparently you don't, but it's why you should.  Is it too late to return the laptop and get something more appropriate to your needs instead?

That could be a video driver crash.  It could also be running out of memory and having massive paging to disk. Remember that for an integrated GPU such as you have, it has to borrow system memory to use as video memory.  Either way, trying to play games on that laptop is going to be very hit and miss.

madazz

Odd place to ask for tech support on a non-mmo game. But, I used to play league a lot and even played on some old devices. I bet you have some settings that just throw the intel graphics for a loop! Try turning off shadows, ambient occlusion, vsync and things like that. Anything post processing like. Especially shadows down low. You'll still be able to play high res with good textures at least.

MrMelGibson

I'm not exactly sure what the spec requirements are for LoL as I've never played it.  But I imagine your integrated gpu is your bottleneck.  Followed by your memory.  I can't say for sure how much it will help, but I would try to upgrade your memory to at least 8gb.  8gb is pretty much the new minimal standard for gaming.  That should help.  

As someone else mentioned, if you can take it back/upgrade it to a better laptop.  You should if you plan on using it for gaming.  If you can't, I'm afraid you will be SoL.

Aeander

While League of Legends seems like a fairly low requirement game, the adobe air client is highly inefficient and may negatively impact performance (while also creating innumerable client glitches). I wouldn't recommend trying to play it on an i3 cpu and integrated gpu.

labortory

I turned off my anti-virus and disabled windows update and now it runs basically flawlessly at mid-high graphics. thanks!

Loke666

labortory said:

I turned off my anti-virus and disabled windows update and now it runs basically flawlessly at mid-high graphics. thanks!

You also should keep an eye on what programs start up on boot, laptops without dedicated GFX cards needs constant care if you want to play anything that isn't turned based on it. Either clean it manually or run a cleaning program now and again.

Also, I understand that getting a really good laptop can be expensive, particularly if you rarely use it but I would recommend you to replace the HD with an SSD when you have some money over. It will make it feel a lot faster (if you want tips how to do it PM me).

Quizzical

labortory said:

I turned off my anti-virus and disabled windows update and now it runs basically flawlessly at mid-high graphics. thanks!

It's possible that the issue before was the anti-virus or Windows Update doing something stupid.  But you'd still better have an anti-virus software running and keep Windows updated.  Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before you get malware.

filmoret

Poor guy gets spammed with gpu hate and it was the antivirus software causing problems.  You could run Archeage, WOW, SWTOR, even ESO on that laptop.

labortory

Yea the only reason i didn't buy a expensive laptop was because I have a gaming desktop and only needed a laptop specifically for school and league xD

Loke666

Quizzical said:

It's possible that the issue before was the anti-virus or Windows Update doing something stupid.  But you'd still better have an anti-virus software running and keep Windows updated.  Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before you get malware.

As long as he updates windows manually now and again that part is fine but I agree about the antivirus.

However I would use a antivirus that uses a little resources as possible. Avasti! is the kindest with 2 processes and 10K memory, many of the others uses 20 or more times the memory and 7 or so processes and that is really bad for a low end laptop.

Why don't you at least try it and see if you still get the freezing problem? No antivirus is rather risky, if you still chose to not use it you should backup the entire HD ASAP.

ste2000

filmoret said:

Poor guy gets spammed with gpu hate and it was the antivirus software causing problems.  You could run Archeage, WOW, SWTOR, even ESO on that laptop.

That's because it is not the Anti Virus,  it is actually the Graphic Card fault.
The matter of fact is that by default the Graphics are handled by the Graphic Processor.
But if the Graphic Card is garbage, then  usually the CPU takes over to help.

Since Antivirus and background programs take a lot of CPU processing the OP CPU could not help the Graphic Card with them active, and the games stuttered.
Once the OP freed the CPU from dealing with background programs, then it was free to help out processing the Graphics, and the games run smoother.

labortory said:

Yea the only reason i didn't buy a expensive laptop was because I have a gaming desktop and only needed a laptop specifically for school and league xD

You should always have Anti Virus and Anti Malware running on your computer.
Just get a middle range Mobile Nvidia Graphic Card if you want to run games on a laptop, the Integrated Intel is definitely not good enough.
The CPU should not run your games.

filmoret

ste2000 said:

filmoret said:

Poor guy gets spammed with gpu hate and it was the antivirus software causing problems.  You could run Archeage, WOW, SWTOR, even ESO on that laptop.

That's because it is not the Anti Virus,  it is actually the Graphic Card fault.
The matter of fact is that by default the Graphics are handled by the Graphic Processor.
But if the Graphic Card is garbage, then  usually the CPU takes over to help.

Since Antivirus and background programs take a lot of CPU processing the OP CPU could not help the Graphic Card with them active, and the games stuttered.
Once the OP freed the CPU from dealing with background programs, then it was free to help out processing the Graphics, and the games run smoother.

labortory said:

Yea the only reason i didn't buy a expensive laptop was because I have a gaming desktop and only needed a laptop specifically for school and league xD

You should always have Anti Virus and Anti Malware running on your computer.
Just get a middle range Mobile Nvidia Graphic Card if you want to run games on a laptop, the Integrated Intel is definitely not good enough.
The CPU should not run your games.

You can't just buy a graphics card and slap it in a laptop.  Life doesn't work that way.  And since I've lived without antivirus for over 20 years I'm sure he will survive without it as well.  He has exactly what he needs for what he wants.  Just gotta get rid of all the bloat first and he will be fine.