My sister has this Lenovo laptop from 2020 (it's got a Ryzen 3 3200, 4GB of RAM, integrated graphics, and runs Windows 10). She's just started using it again, but says it's incredibly slow—even opening the file explorer takes ages. I took a look and everything seems normal on the software side; I couldn't find any weird programs or malicious processes running. If software isn't the issue, I'm thinking it must be something with the hardware. With only 4GB of RAM and an HDD, I can't help but feel that's a major bottleneck. I plan to check if an SSD can be installed and also clean out any dust. In the meantime, does anyone have other suggestions for what might be causing the slowdown? Also, would it be a good idea to upgrade to Windows 11?
2 Answers
You should definitely check the Task Manager to see what's hogging your resources. Sometimes, background processes can slow things down a lot without you even realizing it.
It could also be an issue with a full hard drive. If the HDD is old, that might not help either. Plus, temperature can affect performance, though you mentioned those seemed fine.
Yeah, the temps are okay, so it’s likely the HDD causing the problems. Should I just reinstall the OS if that's the case?
I did check, and it looks like the HDD is the main issue. It’s at 100% usage, while the CPU and RAM are fine.