Maybe not the best place to ask for help on this, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

I am recently using a laptop to play occasionally, and I have been getting random screen freezes while playing. FPS doesn't really seem to drop too much (it stays around 400 or 500, so no danger of dropping below 25) and ping is always under 100, usually in the 60 range. It's really just quick, 1 or 2 second freezes that happen during the game. I know for a fact it is my computer and not server lag.

Laptop is Acer Aspire 7741G-6426 - Core i5 2.66 MHz - 4 GB Ram - 640 GB HDD

Why is Diablo 2 using 50% or more of CPU? Why are the screen freezes occurring? Is there a fix?

This post was edited by inkanddagger on Jul 4 2011 03:18pm

How hot do your CPYmu get?

I would first download a GPU (yes! GPU) test/viewer.
Test your graphics out.
And when that's done, a CPU tester to test that out.

I also want to say that it seems to be a rendering issue - any time something new needs to be rendered, I get short or long screen freezes. The freezes are much more noticeable in large pvm crowds or during 8 player pvp games. The weird thing is that I don't see my FPS drop much when new things are being rendered but I still get graphics lag.

This post was edited by inkanddagger on Jul 4 2011 03:43pm

Anyone have a fix for this? Could it be a windows update that did this?

wut graphics setting are you running

I am not 100% sure about this but...
are you running windows 7?
I have heard talk of windows 7 having issues with d2
from what i have heard all you can do is run in compatibility mode?

Running directdraw in windowed mode, Windows 7 in XP SP3 Compatibility mode.

How hot do your CPU get*

And still the rest.
Test your computer out.

Everything looks fine, really, except for the screen lag. I have 500-600 FPS in game, it doesn't drop when my screen lags, I play in windowed mode/directdraw, I have desktop composition turned off, I am in compatibility mode for XP SP 2, I have affinity set to only one processor, I have priority set to high.

The lag only happens on my screen. If I am running, for example, my screen will freeze and then unfreeze with me a good distance away.

It seems to be some sort of rendering problem that only occurs when something graphically intense is happening, such as in an 8 player pvp game or at baal's minions. However, it makes pvp unplayable and I need a solution.

You don't have 500-600 FPS in game, you have 25 FPS.