my laptop has lagging when trying to view videos either online or downloaded?

You allocate more memory to your video card in your BIOS, unless your laptop is new enough toat memory is allocated on the fly by the demand you place on the system.

Your make and model details would have assisted immensely.

Has this lagging problem always been there? Did it start recently? What has changed since the problem? What changed before the problem? Have any drivers been updated at all? Are you Virus/Malware/Spyware free? Are you sure?

Bear in mind, before you start thinking that you lack Video Memory, remember that people have been watching videos for a while, with video cards older than what is in your laptop. More importantly, videos coming from Online sources like Youtube are typically not all that large... this is so they can download faster than you are watching them. Watching a video online and seeing it stop and start, typically means your internet connection is slower than you expect it to be.

Now, you said that downloaded videos are offering you the same issues... lagging. Details. Details. How large are the videos, file size? How large are the videos, resolution-wise? Are they MPG files? Are they AVI files? Are they MOV files? What program are you using to watch them?

The short answer is to back up your stuff, and use the factory recovery media... and this answer holds true especially if you are experiencing issues that are recent.

end of line

If you laptop is too slow, it wont be able to handle some videos. close anything that u dont use before watching video, try to get the cpu to idle or near idle and try again, if you still cant, ur laptop just doesnt have the power.

Depends on your laptop configuration ... is you have a low performance laptop or a low internet connectivity it's understandable.