The current model of laptop that has replaced the position of the old computer has been widely used by people. Why? Because laptops have many functions, laptops have become a must-have item for most people to support their current activities.
In today's technological era, laptops certainly have a very meaningful contribution to most people, even though there are already cellphones or other devices, but the function of laptops will not replace them.
Almost everyone will feel annoyed if the laptop they are using is slow. Especially when we are working on something, such as office or school assignments. Even worse, if the task must be completed in the near future, maybe this will be a problem because the laptop we rely on to complete these tasks is actually slow.
In addition to hindering us in doing tasks, a slow laptop also interferes with other activities such as browsing and gaming. Anyway, a sluggish laptop is very, very annoying!
What is causing laptop to be slow?
To overcome the slow laptop, you must first find out the cause, then look for solutions to overcome it.
But don't worry, in this fairly long article, we will discuss these two things thoroughly. Here are some causes of a slow laptop and how to solve a slow laptop:
1. Your RAM capacity is small
Random Access Memory or abbreviated as RAM is a memory that is used to temporarily store data on the computer when running a program.
It's easy like this, the more programs running on your laptop, the more RAM is needed. This RAM has the most important role in multitasking or running programs simultaneously at one time.
How to fix it:
So if your laptop is slow or crashes when running several programs simultaneously, you have to increase the RAM capacity on your laptop to be larger, so that the multitasking process and laptop performance is much faster.
For the price of RAM with a capacity of 4GB in the range of 400 thousand (depending on the brand and the place where you buy it).
2. The number of programs running at one time (multitasking)
As I said before, one of the things that causes the laptop to be slow is running many programs at one time. This causes the work of the main components of the laptop, such as the processor and RAM to be heavy.
How to fix it:
Try to run programs one by one so that the work of the processor and RAM becomes lighter. If you continue to force open many programs at one time, don't blame it if your laptop will hang or not responding.
It's different again if your laptop does have high specifications, for example a laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor and has 8GB of RAM, of course this is not too much of a problem. (depending on what kind of application is running)
3. Rarely do windows updates
There is a lot of debate about the pros and cons of updating windows. But I personally tend to advise you to update your windows regularly. Reporting from Microsoft documentation, updating windows is intended to update the system to the latest version, fix bugs or errors and indirectly improve the performance of your laptop.
How to fix it:
- Enter the Settings menu.
- Then select Update & Security.
- In the Windows Update section then click Check for updates.
- Then wait for the process to download the latest patch (how long it takes or not depends on how big the file is to download).
- After that, the installation process will continue and wait for the process to complete.
4. There is a virus or malware on your laptop
The name of the virus, its work must be destructive. Even more annoying, this virus can multiply (mutation) and become the main cause of laptop performance to be slow.
In addition to destroying your important data, this virus can also damage system files that cause the laptop to slow down and hang.
How to fix it:
Use a reliable antivirus to protect your laptop from viruses/malware. Basically, all antivirus functions are the same, protecting your laptop from viruses. But not all antivirus can stem this annoying virus attack.
If your laptop is already infected with a virus/malware and various antiviruses from A to Z can't handle it, I suggest you to immediately reinstall your windows. After that, do the following tips to minimize your laptop from being infected with a virus:
a. Update your antivirus regularly (database)
Every day 'maybe' there will be a new virus that is created. Suppose your antivirus database is out of date, if you are infected with the new virus, your antivirus will not recognize it because the new virus is not in your virus database.
Therefore, it is important for you to regularly update your antivirus database.
b. Do not download carelessly from the internet
The internet is like the "blood" of the human body, which is the main medium for the spread of viruses. So make sure you are wiser and not arbitrary in downloading anything from the internet.
c. Do not plug any FD on your laptop
That is, if you plug a virus-infected FD on your laptop, chances are your laptop will also be infected with a virus.
Therefore, when plugging the FD into your laptop, make sure you scan the flash drive first. Suppose the flash is infected with a virus, your antivirus will quarantine or delete the virus.
5. You installed/run a 'heavy' program
Don't force running programs that your laptop can't run.
The point is like this, suppose your laptop has an Intel Pentium N3540 processor with 2 GB of RAM and you want to install the 2016 Fifa game, of course it is very forced. Because each program or game has its own minimum specifications.
How to fix it :
For example, the picture below is the specifications of the game Fifa 16:
Suppose you want to install the game but your laptop's specifications are not qualified, I suggest you never install it. (Here I'm not talking about system tweaks and the like).
6. The number of programs running at startup
Programs at startup will automatically run when the laptop is first turned on (entered on the windows desktop). The more programs that run at startup, the heavier the multitasking process on your laptop.
How to fix it:
To work around this problem, disable unnecessary programs running at startup. Remember, the program is not needed. Do not let you even disable system programs or drivers that will cause your laptop to not run properly or crash.
Disable only unimportant programs that you recognize, don't just disable any program at startup. There are several ways to enter the startup menu, such as:
- Press windows key + R, then type msconfig.
- In the System Configuration window, select the Startup menu.
- For Windows 8 and 10 users, just go to Task Manager or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc simultaneously, then select the Startup tab.
- Right-click the program that you want to stop running at startup, then select Disable.
7. The number of programs installed on the laptop
A laptop that has many programs installed on it is one of the causes of a slow laptop. It might not be a problem if your laptop has a large enough hard drive capacity, for example 1TB.
Now it's different if your laptop has an HDD capacity of only 320 GB but many applications are installed in it. This is one of the causes of laptop performance to be slow.
How to fix it:
a. Uninstall unnecessary programs
As I said before that many installed programs are one of the triggers for the laptop to be slow. Therefore, make sure you install the programs that you really need.
If there are programs that are not important and you rarely use, it's better to just uninstall them than burden the computer's performance. Especially if the program runs at startup, it will only burden the laptop's performance. To check the programs installed on your laptop, please refer to the following steps;
1. Go to Control Panel >> Uninstall a program.
2. Please uninstall programs that are really not important or are rarely used by right-clicking the program, then selecting Uninstall.
To uninstall the program is also not arbitrary. You must really know what program you are going to uninstall, lest you uninstall your laptop's drivers which causes your laptop not to run properly. The picture below is an example of some of the drivers installed on my laptop:
b. Upgrade your HDD capacity to be bigger
For example, the HDD capacity of your laptop, which used to be 320GB, can be upgraded to 500GB or 1TB.
With a larger HDD capacity, installing many programs on a laptop is not a problem, let alone making the laptop slow.
If necessary, you can also use an SSD which has much better performance than the HDD. But unfortunately the price is relatively expensive with a fairly small capacity, so I do not recommend upgrading to an SSD. I personally prefer to buy RAM instead of SSD so that multitasking activities are much better.
c. Use external HDD
For example, if you don't want to upgrade your laptop's internal HDD for fear of losing the warranty or fearing something might happen, I suggest using an external HDD instead. More portable and easy to carry everywhere.
So you can store large files such as movies and games into this external HDD.
8. Delete temporary files that accumulate
Temporary files are temporary files created by the windows system for a specific purpose. Files in the recycle bin or cache in your browser activity can also affect the performance of your laptop.
How to fix it:
To solve this problem, I usually use CCleaner. This software can also be used as an alternative to a windows tool called Disk Cleanup.
You can see in the image below, about 300 MB of temporary files, cache files, files in the recycle bin and other files that are one of the triggers for my laptop to be slow, I have cleaned it. I suggest you to do regular cleaning so that the performance of your laptop is maintained.
9. Your laptop's hardware is problematic
Maybe many don't know that problematic hardware can also cause a laptop to be slow, for example what happened to my laptop fan.
So a few days ago my laptop fan had a problem, where the rotation sound was not as usual, the sound was loud and a bit stuttering. It's only been used for a while, the laptop gets hot quickly and a bit slow, not as usual.
After that I decided to disassemble it and to my surprise I saw a very thick pile of dust, where this pile of dust was the cause of my laptop fan being problematic.
After I cleaned the thick dust that stuck, my laptop fan rotation returned to normal and my laptop's performance returned to normal.
How to fix it:
To fix this, we must first find out which hardware is the problem.
In my case, the fan on my laptop contained very thick dust, where this thick dust made the fan not run normally. It could be that later you will experience hardware problems that are different from mine, such as problems with the HDD (most often), processor, VGA or other hardware.
10. Hard drive has never been defragmented
When we run an application, the cache of these applications will be stored on the hard disk which can reduce laptop performance. In addition, messy data that will gradually accumulate can also cause the laptop to be slow.
How to fix it:
Defragmentation on the hard disk is done in order to rearrange the messy data on the hard disk. In other words, data fragments that are located far apart will be rearranged to be neat and intact. To defrag your hard drive, please refer to the following steps:
- Go to Control Panel >> Select System and Security.
- On the Administrative Tool menu, select Defragment and optimize your drives.
- To defrag your hard drive, click the Optimize button. Select-button-optimize
- For Windows 8 users, this defragment tool will run automatically every week. To change it, click the Change Settings button then select daily (every day), weekly (every week) or monthly (every month).
11. It's Time to Reinstall
If the nine methods mentioned above still don't treat the slow disease on your laptop, then you can try this reinstall option.
Conclusion
Some of the ways to deal with a slow laptop above can be applied to various laptop brands. The success or failure of the above method depends on many factors, because of different causes, of course the solution is also different. But there's no harm in trying right?
Maybe you have your own tips for dealing with a slow laptop? Share in the comments column yes. I can add it later in the article. Thank you!