Why is my laptop so slow? 5 things we check first

A slow laptop is one of the most common reasons people come in. These are the usual causes, in the order we check them:

The hard drive. Older laptops with a spinning hard drive slow down a lot as the drive ages. Switching to a solid state drive (SSD) is often the biggest speed boost.
Too much starting up at once. Programs that open at startup and run in the background add up.
Viruses and junk software. Pop ups, new toolbars, a changed home page: these are signs.
Heat and dust. A laptop that runs hot slows itself down to protect itself. A cleaning inside can fix it.
Not enough memory for what you use it for today.

We check all of this for free and tell you what will actually help, so you don't pay for things that won't.

Bring it in today. We'll take it from here.