How to fix my slow gaming laptop?

Generally if a computer "used to perform good" and now it doesn't I always suspect what is starting up and what may be running in the background. Most software during the install process will set itself up to start at boot up with everything else. The goal would be to have as little starting up as possible. Basically all that I normally recommend is to have Windows, antivirus, and possibly an anti-malware program booting up. You really don't need other programs consuming your resources if you are not currently running them. So here's a simple way to disable a lot of unnecessary programs from running. Go to an open area on the Task Bar and right click once. In the list that appears left click on Task Manager. A small window will open. In the row of tabs at the top of the window lift click on Startup. This display a list of the programs that are booting up and running in the background. Too many things running simple consume your ram and some CPU resources. Look over your list and decide what you don't need to run all the time. For example, if you are a Chrome user there is no need to have it running all of the time unless you are currently browsing the web. To stop it simply left click on it once to hi-light it, and then go down to the lower right hand corner of the window and left click on "Disable". You'll see the word "disable" in the third column so you'll know it's status. Now go through the entire list and disable as many unnecessary programs as you feel comfortable with. You can always go back later and "Enable" any program if you so desire. Once you've disabled as many as you can, simply Close the window, and then reboot your computer. Go back to the list and double check it to ensure it's as you want it. You should see some improvement in your computer's performance. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

over time the specs of any pc can become too low for current loadings. In particular RAM becomes increasingly more important. these days 4gb RAM will mean a pc goes slow but will work with windows 10, 8gb means its OK and can cope with a medium amount of already open applications(ie those ones that open at system start) i would expect 8gb will soon start to go slow(maybe 1 - 2 years time) as the Increase in the Antivirus loadings gets cumulatively worse and the pollution of advertising becomes ever more crippling. Thus the advice i would give is, if 4gb is your ram limit, then thats as good as it will ever get, if you have an 8gb limit then you should be able to re-install windows and it should run well(thats NOT the same as Resetting it), but now the best RAM amount is anything over 8gb. Typical things that kill a pc's performance 1) any network server app such as a GAMING connection or a TEAM WORKER application 2) a bad hard drive 3) two interfering applications giving rise to a CPU Usage of 50% This is a key number reflecting that an application is either a HOGG or its interfering with something else and cannot co-operate with it. 4) Broadband providers often want to add startup software especially for their ROUTER control because many customers dont know how to check/adjust their router and the provider may want remote access to it. This can be excessively over heavy on cpu usage and can kill the performance of quite a good pc even though its rarely needed. 5) if your pc is connected via WiFi to your router, then this may be a source of whats wrong. Check and adjust router channel numbers to avoid local interference, and confirm your wifi link can hold a full on transmission rate.

Look at what's going on in Task Manager.

The performance tab will show you if there are any heavy work going on that shouldn't be.

The process tab will show you exactly what program is putting the heavy load that shouldn't be.

Is all the RAM there that is supposed to be? Is something constantly running on the CPU that shouldn't be, or is the hard drive constantly spinning?

After a factory reset it will take the laptop a while to get all the Windows Updates installed, and it's pretty common for Windows Update to get stuck in this process and just eat up CPU. I usually manually install the updates a few at a time until it gets caught up.

rnaybe you should take it to a cornputer place and have thern take a look at it

Replace the Hard Drive with a SSD (solid state hard drive).

Internet speed, background processes such as multiple antivirus software or applications running.

Assume you use ccleaner to clear cache and reboot from cold start occassionally.

https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download

CCleaner has various features besides clearing temporary cache files and you could examine startup processes and software

Highly unlikely other

Gaming is on the graphics card on AC power.

Not gaming, and on battery is using Intel graphics.

If the gaming is very low cpu use and very high graphics, it could be a cpu overheat or similar thermal issue.

Depending on HDD usage, may pay to change to ssd in a clone and swap.

Think if you have a lot of software installed it slows it down.