Sumaiya Rahman

Millions of laptops get thrown out every single year for being "too slow." And the hardware inside them is almost never the problem. Not the processor. Not the RAM. Not the age of the machine. Not the brand. And not the fact that a newer model just launched. Last month I almost spent $1,800 on a brand new MacBook. Mine had been getting worse for about a year. It took almost 2 minutes to boot, the fan screamed like a jet engine every time I joined a Zoom call, and every new tab felt like loading through a straw. I was convinced it was dying. I had the checkout page open and my thumb hovering over the button. Then a friend dragged me to see an IT technician with 15 years of experience, who has fixed thousands of laptops for offices, students, freelancers, and small businesses. Most of them walk in saying the exact same sentence: "It just got slow for no reason." He took my laptop, spent about 5 minutes on it, and handed it back feeling brand new. Then he said something I haven't stopped thinking about: "Nobody's laptop is actually slow. What's slow is everything that's been quietly piling up underneath it since the day you bought it. Background programs, a stuffed drive, a browser full of junk, years of dust. None of it shows on the screen, so you blame the machine. And the store is more than happy to let you." He then walked me through the exact 6 things he checks first, in order, every single time. None of them cost money. Most take under 2 minutes. Several of them made me feel genuinely ridiculous for how close I came to spending $1,800. Here's the full breakdown 🧵