Anti-virus programs, like McAfee or AVG, can sometimes block game access.

Add Origin and your games as exceptions to your anti-virus. If you keep having trouble, disable or temporarily uninstall the anti-virus to help pin down the cause.

Just like anti-virus programs, anti-spyware applications, like Ad Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy, can mistakenly block Origin or your games while trying to protect your computer.

Add Origin and your games as exceptions to your anti-spyware. If you keep having trouble, disable or temporarily uninstall the anti-spyware to troubleshoot.

Firewalls and any other security measures you have on your computer, like Windows Defender and Peerblock, try their best to keep only the most important information coming through to your computer. This can cause interference when running the Origin client or your games.

Add Origin and your games as exceptions to your firewalls. If you keep having trouble, disable or temporarily uninstall your firewall to troubleshoot.

Peer to Peer (P2P) programs, like uTorrent and Limewire, can use up both your net-bandwidth and your computer’s processing power, especially if you’re downloading lots of things simultaneously.

Close out any P2P apps or limit the number of active downloads/uploads while playing your games or using Origin.

If you’re on a shared network, check that no one else is torrenting while you’re playing, too. 

Much like P2P software, FTP or other Web Server programs, like Cyberduck and Filezilla, can eat up a lot of your Internet bandwidth. This affects your online play and can take up a lot of your system's resources, which can cause slowed-down or laggy gameplay.

Exit any FTP or similar program completely before playing, or make sure that no downloads or uploads are active.

Download management programs, like Internet Download Manager or Download Accelerator Plus, may affect your game downloads or updates.

Before opening Origin, close out your Download Management software.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) give users access to private networks, like business intranets. VPNs take up extra Internet connection bandwidth as well as computer processing power. Private networks may also have extra security measures that can limit game playability.

Disconnect from any VPN you're connected to before starting up your game.

Using a proxy, IP filtering, or IP masking software can affect how your computer and your games are connecting to Origin and EA's game servers.

Disable these before jumping into the Origin client and your games. 

Any program that tries to place a filter, picture, or Graphical User Interface (GUI) on top of a running program can cause problems for Origin and your games. Origin has its own In-Game Overlay feature, so multiple running at one time can cause issues.

VoIP programs, like Ventrilo or Mumble and game progress monitors, like Raptr, have these kinds of overlays. Close these programs or disable their overlay before running Origin or your games.