If your laptop is slow or hangs sometimes, it can negatively affect your work and even leave you in the middle of an important meeting! However, this does not necessarily mean that you should buy a new laptop. It just means your laptop needs more attention. Some of the most common questions of DELL, HP or Lenovo laptop users are why their laptop hangs and what to do in such a situation. This is a common problem in most laptops and it doesn’t matter if the operating system is Windows 7, 8, 10 or even macOS.
In this article, we will help you to understand the main reasons for hanging laptops and we will show you how to solve these problems. Of course, we have limited this article to include only laptops that have Windows operating systems.
9 Common Ways to Fix the Laptop Hang Problem
1-Close programs and services that are running in the background unintentionally
This is the first thing you should try the next time you hang your laptop. If you press the Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys together, the Windows Task Manager window will appear. All you have to do is check which programs are using the most CPU and RAM.
If you find a program that is running unwanted and using RAM and CPU, click on it and then on the End Task button.
Once all unwanted programs and processes are identified and closed, your problem should be resolved and the laptop should behave normally. If not, you may have to force shut down your device by holding the power button for a few seconds and then restart it. Don’t forget to save the document you are working on so you don’t lose important data.
2- Install the latest Windows updates
If you don’t install OS updates on time, your laptop may not work properly. It is recommended that you always run a legitimate version of Microsoft Windows so that you can download updates as soon as they are released. If you are using Windows 10, the update option will be turned on automatically. In most cases, automatic updates and the latest drivers are available online.
To update through Windows, be sure to follow the steps below:
How to install operating system updates in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1
1- First, open the Control Panel.
2- Then click on the System and Security option. Then click on the Windows Update option.
3-Windows Update checks for any available updates for your laptop. If it was a new update, you can see it. (We recommend installing all important updates first.)
How to install operating system update in Windows 10
1-Open Settings.
2- Click on the Update & Security option.
3- Then click on Windows Update.
4- Click on the Check for updates button.
5- After downloading the update on your laptop, click on the Restart Now button.
3- Use a cooling pad or cool pad to prevent overheating of the laptop
If the laptop processor does not work at the optimal clock speed; It may cause it to slow down and this happens when the laptop heats up and the processor has to reduce its clock speed to maintain the proper temperature. This is called performance throttling. When a laptop overheats, its fans work at 100% of their power, in which case you may hear abnormal loud noises produced by the cooling fan inside the laptop. This will indicate that your laptop is overheating and will warn you.
To prevent performance loss, you must make sure that your laptop completely dissipates the heat generated in its interior. In addition, you should make sure that dust does not block the vents and vents that send warm air out. Clogged air vents can be a big problem.
The best way to prevent your laptop from overheating is to use a cooling pad. The fans inside this cooling pad suck hot air from the laptop’s air vents and send it out. This helps the laptop stay cool and last longer. We recommend that you always place the laptop on a hard or flat surface so that the hot air can escape easily. Uneven and soft surfaces such as blankets, pillows or your feet will block the airflow of the laptop.
4- The silicon paste of the laptop processor should be checked
Sometimes, the laptop CPU can’t dissipate heat properly because the thermal paste (also known as silicone paste) is not effective. This paste helps transfer heat from the CPU or GPU to the heatsink. So, if it loses its effect, you should go to an authorized and reliable laptop repair service center and ask them to replace the previous one with high-quality thermal paste.
5- Upgrade your RAM
If your laptop hangs constantly, insufficient RAM can be one of the reasons. Having enough RAM is necessary to keep the system functioning smoothly. Make sure your RAM has the capacity to run multiple programs at the same time.
When you run several heavy programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, AutoCAD or Visual Studio at the same time or open several heavy files at the same time, your laptop may not have enough RAM to load them all. If your RAM is upgradeable, we recommend that you do so.
If it works fine when you first turn on your device, but within a few hours it starts to slow down, files take too long to open, and websites don’t load quickly, you may not have enough RAM. is not. In addition, if your laptop keeps restarting, this is also a sign of faulty or insufficient RAM.
6- A faulty hard drive can slow down your laptop
Most modern mid-range and high-end laptops now have solid-state drives or SSDs. However, older laptops and some entry-level laptops still use hard drives. If your laptop also has a hard drive and every time you turn it on, you notice an unusual clicking sound, it means that there is a problem with your hard drive. Do not skip this simple problem!
If there is a serious problem with the hard drive and it fails, you may lose important information due to the failure of the hard drive. This is why we recommend saving all your important documents and files on an external hard drive so that you don’t lose important information. Making backup copies of important files is essential.
To make sure, your hard drive is damaged or not, you can open File Explorer on your laptop and follow the steps below:
1- First, click on the Windows button at the bottom left and search for File Explorer.
2- Right-click on the drive you want to check.
3- Go to the Properties section.
4- In Windows, go to the Tools section and click on Check. If the hard drive is causing the problem, you’ll know here.
7- Be sure to check the laptop fan
Laptop fans become dusty due to the absorption of dust and after a while their rotation speed decreases, the laptop gets hot and after a while, the internal components may be seriously damaged. We recommend cleaning the fan by opening the back of the laptop with the help of air.
You can also use the SpeedFan program (download link) to check possible fan and hard disk problems. If the fan has a problem, you can clean it, and if the hard disk is damaged, you need to go to an authorized dealer to repair your laptop for replacement.
8- Remove additional Windows default programs
By installing Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11, many default programs are installed on your hard drive, which breaks your back! It is enough to remove all default Windows programs with the help of software such as IObit Uninstaller (download link – download the portable version that does not need to be installed at all!).
It is very easy to work with it! Just like in the picture below, after opening the program, enter the Windows apps section tick all the additional Windows programs you see here, and then click on uninstall. (Of course, we suggest that you don’t check the calculator and the Photos program, which is for viewing photos, it will work for you).
It takes about half an hour or more (depending on the laptop) to delete these programs, then restart the system (you will see that the speed has increased, it has doubled now!) and go to the next step.
9- Update drivers
Update all software and drivers, especially graphics card, CPU and motherboard drivers. Also, make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed. Update other drivers using Driver Booster.
Updating the graphics card driver is essential for running computer games.
If your graphics card is NVIDIA type, go to this site and download the Geforce Experience driver.
If it’s AMD, download the Radeon™ Graphics driver by going to this site.
For the Intel graphics card, go to this site and download the Intel Graphics driver.
Or you can update all your drivers automatically. Just download the Driver booster software from here and after opening it as shown in the image below, click the scan option (you must be connected to the Internet) to update your drivers.