3 Common Reasons For A Sluggish Laptop

Your laptop used to start up quickly, and now it takes forever to boot up, or you may experience frequent freezing of your browser. Before you panic, there are several minor changes you can make to help speed up the performance of your laptop.

Unnecessary Programs

When you first notice your laptop is becoming sluggish, you should go through your list of programs and see if there are several you can uninstall. In some cases, these unnecessary programs may have come with your laptop, which many people call "bloatware." In the future, uninstall these programs when you first receive your laptop. Over time, you may have accumulated programs you no longer use, which are also taking up space. After you have deleted all these programs, restart your computer to see if you notice a difference in the performance.

Viruses

It is good practice to have virus protection software installed as soon as you purchase a laptop. Do a thorough scan of your computer with your virus protection software to see if it finds anything. You should never exclusively rely on the quick scans your software might use. Although the quick scans may find basic problems, the full scan will be necessary to increase the chances of finding the problem, if it exists. If your software does not find anything, you may want to take the process a step further and try free virus protection software online. Just be careful before downloading anything. Read the reviews and only download these programs from reputable sources. Since each program will have different tactics of finding problems, it is always possible another program may find something the first program missed.

Memory

You should fully expect you will need to upgrade the memory if you purchased an entry-level laptop. Sometimes it is less expensive to upgrade the memory yourself than to purchase the same laptop with extra memory included. Use online tools, such as your laptop manufacture's website, to find the type of memory your laptop uses, the amount installed, and the number of memory slots in your laptop. Purchase memory that is identical to what is already in your computer, such as DDR3 204 pin RAM.

If your laptop has an open memory slot, purchase the identical amount of memory for the open slot, such as 8 GB, so each slot has the same amount of memory. When there is only one slot, try doubling the amount of memory for the upgrade. Typically, your laptop manufacturer will tell you the maximum amount of memory allowed, which may also be contingent upon your OS. If you are not comfortable upgrading your memory, it is always best to speak with a professional to ensure you have the right memory upgrade and do not cause damage to your device in the process.

One of the first problems people typically encounter with their laptop is lagging. Most slow laptops need basic fixes or a quick memory upgrade to return to faster performance. Talk to a computer repair company to learn more. 


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