Why Is HP Laptop Slow Startup and How to Speed up?

Digital technology has transformed us into instant gratification monsters with little tolerance for slow load times and sluggish processing. We want our pricey technology to keep up with our fast-paced surroundings, but the fact is that slowdowns develop over time.

Many HP laptop users meet the PC slow startup issue. Some find that PC slows down after Windows 10 update, some even meet this problem on a newly bought machine. How does this happen? How could you fix it? And are there any methods to improve HP laptop performance? Here, in this post, we’ll help you solve your HP laptop slow startup problem and give you some ideas to improve your PC performance.

Why is my HP laptop so slow?

Device slowdowns can occur for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with how you use your device. There are some common problems that may cause your HP laptop slow startup.

1. Running out of memory

Usually, if your PC takes a long time to boot in Windows, the first non-physical issue is insufficient memory, and the memory here we mentioned, is RAM.

Understanding how much RAM (random access memory) your laptop has is useful for determining which apps can be launched on it. The more RAM you have, the more memory you have for memory-intensive apps like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Symptoms of limited memory include extremely sluggish processing while many programs are open. Most computers can manage multitasking without a hitch, but old or overworked PCs won't be able to handle many memory-intensive apps running at the same time.

Even if you're not actively multitasking, a lot of apps running in the background might be slowing down your laptop's performance. This might range from anti-virus tools scanning data to Dropbox silently synchronizing files.

2. Using old HDD as system disk

If you get to search for the hard disk on the Internet, you’ll find that more and more users are tended to use SSD as the system disk. Because of its unique operating method and structure, SSD is quicker, safer, and more dependable.

Whereas HDD takes longer to read and write your target data, and it is more brittle. Moreover, HDD will generate file fragments to further delay the time it takes to track data. You need to regularly defragment your HP laptop if it installs an HDD.

3. Fully-used system disk

No matter HDD or SSD you’re using, if your HP laptop has a fully-used system disk, getting what you need will take too long and be too much labor. As you download and install applications, files, images, and large music libraries onto your computer, they are all stored on your hard drive.

When your hard disk capacity approaches 90%, your computer may begin to function up to 50% slower than it did previously. You may choose to clean up your disk or change to a larger disk.

4. Virus and malware attack

When our computers begin to act strangely, we automatically assume that malware has corrupted our valuable technology. Although our assumptions are occasionally overreactions, our suspicions are sometimes reasonable. Malware is programmed to damage computer functions, effectively slowing down your machine. These threats can result in BSOD, an overworked hard drive full of strange files, sudden slowdown, and slow startup.

5. Excessive dust accumulation

Static electricity is generated by the host, and static electricity attracts dust. Excessive dust will reduce heat dissipation and degrade computer performance. If the dust in the air outlet is not cleaned promptly, it will cause a sluggish HP laptop.

Cleaning the computer regularly will not only increase the computer's operating performance but also prevent the hardware from being burned out due to high temperatures and extend the computer's life.

6 ways to fix HP laptop slow startup

Whether you're dealing with outdated technology or broken gear, being able to identify the source of your slowdown is the first step in finding a solution. So, in this part, we list some solutions for you to fix your HP laptop slow startup and HP computer running slow.

Way 1. Release memory

Startup applications take much usage of the RAM. You can disable some startup programs to release RAM on your HP PC.

Step 1. Press "Ctrl+Alt+Del" simultaneously to open "Task Manager".

Step 2. In the pop-up window, click the Startup tab, and all the startup apps will be listed.

Step 3. Right-click the program you want to disable and choose "Disable". Then, it won't start up automatically when you boot your PC.

And if your HP laptop runs slowly after a while, you can go to Task Manager to end some background programs. In the Task Manager, right-click the unnecessary programs, and select "End task".

Way 2. Check virus and malware

As we've mentioned in the last part, malware and viruses slow down your computer by distorting common operations. If you do not wipe them immediately, they may entirely harm your hard disk and, worse, destroy your operating system.

Step 1. Press "Windows+ I" to open the Settings, click "Update & Security" > "Windows Security" > "Open Windows Security" > "Virus & threat protection" > "Scan options"

Step 2. Select a scanning method based on your need, and click “Scan now" to scan and remove viruses and malware.

Way 3. Clean up disk space

It’s unavoidable to create junk files on your PC. Some of them will be automatically cleaned by Windows OS, but the rest will still store on your disk. You can clean junk files on your C drive to see if the problem is solved.

Step 1. Type "disk cleanup" in the search box, and hit "Enter".

Step 2. Select a drive and click "OK". Then, tick the files you want to delete and click "OK" to begin cleaning junk files on the selected hard drive.

Way 4. Release disk storage space

If you find that method 3 can’t release sufficient space on your C drive, you can try more in this way.

▶ Option 1. Uninstall unneeded apps

Normally, junk files won’t take GBs on your drive, but your programs will. A game may need 5 or more GBs. If your PC installed many applications and many of them you’ve not used for a long time. Now it’s time to get rid of them.

Step 1. Press the "Windows + I" keys to open Windows Settings, and click "Apps" to continue.

Step 2. In the "Apps & features" section, all the applications you installed on your laptop will be listed. Select the software you hardly use and hit the "Uninstall" button. Repeat this operation to remove all the unwanted software.

▶ Option 2. Move installed apps to another location without reinstalling

If you really don’t want to uninstall some apps, another choice is to move them to a new location. You can’t manually move installed apps, there are many hidden files used for keeping the apps running well. Users can’t find them. In this case, you can choose AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, a disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP/Vista systems.

This tool has an “App Mover” function that can move installed programs to another drive or disk safely to ensure they can run as usual. If your PC disk has one more partition/disk, or there are external disks that are always connected to your PC as a data disk, you can use this tool to move apps from the C drive.

Step 1. Install and launch PA Professional, select the “App Mover” under "Free up".

Step 2. There are two options, click “App Mover”. You can also click “Move Folders” if you need to move folders from C drive to D drive.

Step 3. Then, select the C drive and click "Next".

Step 4. Choose the target apps you want to move and select the destination location, then click "Move".

Step 5. In the pop-up window, you need to read the prompts. Click "OK" to begin the process.

▶ Option 3. Extend C drive space

The third selection to get more space on the C drive is to extend it. If there is another partition on your system disk, you can choose the “Allocated Free Space” function to directly share free space on that partition with the C drive.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional and find the drive with enough free space like a D drive. Right-click it and choose the button "Allocate Free Space".

Step 2. The following picture will let you choose the size you want to allocate and the destination drive you want to add such as allocating 243.81GB from D to C drive.

Step 3. Finally, click "Apply" > "Proceed" to commit the operation.

In only 3 steps, you can extend the C drive space. And if your disk has an unallocated space that is not behind the C drive, you can use the “Merge Partition” function to merge it to your C drive.

Way 5. Upgrade HDD to SSD (without reinstalling OS)

The best way to improve PC performance is to change your HDD to an SSD. You can clone from an old HDD to an SSD if you don't want to reinstall Windows or other applications. After cloning, you can preserve your current settings while enjoying the faster performance.

The feature “Disk Clone Wizard” of AOMEI Partition Assistant can easily finish this task for you. And you can use this tool to set up an SSD and HDD combo if your devices are allowed.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Clone" and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Here you can select the copy method: “Clone Disk Quickly” (recommended) or “Sector-by-sector Clone”. If your destination disk is smaller, you could only choose the first method.

Step 3. Choose the original disk as the source disk.

Step 4. Choose the new disk as the target disk.

Step 5. AOMEI Partition Assistant allows you to edit partitions on the destination disk. If you want to do it later, you can also use AOMEI Partition Assistant to resize partitions after copy.

Step 6. Read the Note, and click Finish.

Step 7. When you see the main interface, click Apply-> Proceed.

Note: You can also choose the Migrate OS to SSD to only clone your system and keep other things on the HDD.

Way 6. Add RAM on the PC

To update Memory, you must first check the Device specifications on your PC.

Step 1. Open “Settings”, click “System”, and choose ”About”.

Step 2. In this window, please pay attention to” Device specifications”.

As previously said, you may view all of your Windows statistics and alter your RAM from a small to a higher size provided your Computer meets the requirements. Certain laptops may require you to send your computer to see if there are any more memory slots.

After your check your RAM, if you have a 32-bit operating system and 4GB of installed Memory, the only thing you can do is add RAM that cannot be greater than 4GB.

If your computer is 64-bit, you may have more options. In this case, if your Computer memory is less than or equivalent to 4GB, you should consider upgrading RAM. You can use any Memory that is bigger than 4GB. And if your 64-bit system memory has a low frequency and tiny RAM, such as 4GB DDR3 RAM, we recommend upgrading to 8GB DDR4 RAM.

After you bought a new RAM, if your PC only has one slot, you must replace the little Memory with a larger RAM; if you have additional RAM available, you should buy a new RAM that is the same as the previous one.

Turn off your System and access the panel after purchasing fresh Memory. Replace it with your new one or set it in the additional slot. Next, check to see if the Memory is being installed steadily.

Summary

If you confront HP laptop slow startup, hope the approaches in this article can help you solve this issue. As a practical PC manager, AOMEI Partition Assistant can fix many PC problems, it can also wipe laptops, format laptop, and fix laptop OS errors.

And if you need to manage a Windows Server PC, there’s also the Server Edition to support you.