Why is Your Lenovo Laptop Slow & How to Speed It Up

A slow Lenovo laptop is often due to issues like a full hard drive, too many programs being run at a time, or the presence of malware on the device. Thankfully, there are simple ways to deal with these issues to help your device run faster.

Dealing with a laptop that randomly slows down during use can drag your productivity to a halt and be incredibly annoying. While it may be easy to identify the reason for a slow laptop at times, this isn’t always the case. 

Read on to learn more about the reasons why your Lenovo laptop is so slow, and how you can go about making it faster.

Key Takeaways

• If your Lenovo computer is slow, it is often because the hard drive is full, there are too many programs opened, and the computer has malware or viruses on it.

• Improving the speed of your device can often be done by clearing up some room on your hard drive by uninstalling apps/programs, reducing how many programs you are using, and running frequent virus scans to remove malware.

• Making upgrades to your computer, such as upgrading RAM or getting a larger hard drive can improve speed, but not all devices will be able to make these types of upgrades.

Reasons Your Lenovo Laptop is Slow

Here are some of the most common reasons why your Lenovo laptop may be working slower than usual.

1. The Hard Drive is Full

The first reason your Lenovo laptop may be running slow is that your hard drive is full. During normal operation, your computer needs space to put new and temporary files from time to time. The more free space you have, the easier and quicker that your computer can find space.

If your device storage is maxed out, your operating system won’t have enough space to work efficiently, and will take longer to create these files, thus slowing down every aspect of your computer.

2. Too Many Programs Running at Once

One of the most common causes of a slow computer is simply having too many apps or programs running at once. Computers only have a certain amount of memory, and a computer with a dozen apps open is going to be more sluggish than one with a single app being used.

However, even if you didn’t open a program yourself doesn’t mean it isn’t running. When you start your computer, there may be a few apps or programs that will start to run as soon as you boot up your device.

These are a major problem as you might not even know that they are taking up computing power. If you want a clear view of all the programs running on your computer, open up the Task Manager.

3. There is Malware on the Computer

If your computer has malware or a virus on it, this could be contributing to a sudden lack of speed. Malware can use up a lot of the memory in your computer, and only leave a tiny amount of resources for the legitimate programs you are trying to use.

Your device can be infected by downloading or opening certain files, visiting questionable websites, clicking a link you shouldn’t have, and more.

In addition to potentially slowing down your computer, malware and viruses can also spam you with advertisements, lock files, infect USB drives, and more. Whether it slows down your computer or not, you certainly don’t want malware on your system.

Here is a great video to help you know if your PC has been compromised by malware. 

How to Make Your Lenovo Laptop Faster

Thankfully, there are ways to fix these issues that lead to poor performance. Here are a couple of things to try in order to make your Lenovo laptop faster.

1. Uninstall Some Applications

Freeing up some space on your hard drive by uninstalling some programs is a great way to get some more speed. This can be done in seconds by going to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program. Then, simply right-click the app from the list and click Uninstall.

This page will also show you the size of each program, so you know how much space you’ll save by removing it. In addition to programs, files can often take up a lot of space on a hard drive. Don’t hesitate to delete files you no longer need.

This is done by opening the File Explorer, finding the files you want to delete, right-clicking them, and clicking Delete. As far as how much free space you should have on your computer, we recommend you keep a minimum of 15% of the storage space free.

If you want to save time, you can also use a PC cleaning program to assist you in the process.

2. Reduce the Number of Programs You Run

A simple solution if you think too many open apps or programs is your problem is to simply run fewer programs at once. To close programs you have running, it’s as simple as opening the Task Manager, right-clicking a task, and choosing End Task to stop it.

The Task Manager is a great tool, and will not only show you what is running, but how much of your memory and CPU it is using.

If you want to stop programs from opening and running automatically when starting up your Lenovo laptop, all you need to do is head back to the Task Manager, navigate to the Startup tab, and Disable the programs you no longer want to start when your computer boots up.

3. Run a Virus Scan

With malware or a virus potentially causing your computer to work at a snail’s pace, you should run a virus scan. If you have a Windows 10 or Windows 11 device, you have Windows Security built-in to your computer, and this comes with the Microsoft Defender antivirus.

Using this antivirus software lets you run virus scans to identify threats, and remove them from your computer to ensure you always have optimal performance. To run a scan, go to Windows Security > Virus & threat protection, and then press Quick scan.

If any threats are detected during the scan, you will be notified and will be able to deal with them. You should run a quick scan frequently, as they generally won’t take more than a few minutes at most. Many people will run a quick scan every day for peace of mind.

Every now and then, you should also run a Full scan. This can take well over an hour, but will go through a lot more files and generally provide a more thorough scan of your computer to make sure it is free of malware.

4. Upgrade hardware for a real performance boost

If you use your Lenovo laptop mostly for photo editing, video making, 3D modeling, or other types of design work, consider adding more RAM (random-access memory). RAM upgrades can give you more power to handle large programs. You’ll experience fewer system freezes or hangs.

On the other hand, SSDs are becoming more popular and affordable. Replacing the spinning HDD on your Lenovo with a new SSD is almost a guaranteed solution to increase the performance of your Lenovo.

FAQs

Here are a few commonly asked questions about Lenovo laptop speed, as well as their answers.

Can I upgrade the RAM (random access memory) on my Lenovo laptop?

Insufficient RAM can be another cause of poor laptop speed. The good news is, you can often upgrade or improve the RAM in your Lenovo laptop to unlock more performance. However, keep in mind that some cannot upgrade and will be stuck with the factory RAM.

Can physical damage slow down a laptop?

Generally, damage won’t cause a computer to slow down, though it may stop it from working altogether. Of course, there are situations where damage to a cooling fan could lead to overheating, which can cause performance issues like freezing or lagging.

Final Thoughts

If your Lenovo laptop is running slow, a full hard drive, too many programs running, or the presence of malware could be to blame. Thankfully, clearing up some space, closing a few programs, and running frequent virus scans, can get your computer back up and running well.

Are there other things you do to speed up your laptop that we haven’t mentioned? If so, let us know in a comment.