Starcraft II Overheating issues, menus slow (fixed)

[Xavier]

If your computer is getting really hot while you play StarCraft II, it’s not because you’re blazing up Battle.net – it’s because the game is roasting your machine alive.

Blizzard has confirmed the game has an overheating bug. Apparently, the game doesn’t cap the frame rate it uses when rendering its menus. So basically, the system goes crazy, overworking itself on rendering the menu, and that causes a big increase in heat.

So much so that if the problem isn’t dealt with, it can damage your computer.

There’s an easy fix, however.

Pop open this file: “My Documents\StarCraft II\variables.txt.” Then drop the following two lines onto the bottom of the file:

frameratecapglue=30
frameratecap=60

Save the file and you’re done. According to Blizzard customer support, this change is only a temporary workaround, but it’s probably a fair assumption that there will be a patch to fix the program permanently pretty soon.

Until then, your best defense against StarCraft II-related spontaneous combustion is to remember the advice of Master Miller from Metal Gear Solid: “Take a break.” Your computer (and your bladder) will thank you.