Laptop slows and freezes

[Patsy6031]

This laptop was just purchased in December and it's hangs and keeps freezing up.  My friend who only plays solitaire on it cannot see too well so it's set to stay on 24/7.  She'll be playing and the sound disappears and the game disappears and it's very slow.  The font and cursor settings are set to large.  

To fix it, I just turn it off and it's very very slow turning off.  I keep it off for awhile and unplug it.  Then when I turn it on it seems to be ok, for a few days.  She doesn't go online so I did not install an anti-virus program or a malware program.  I set up her own user name and pin without any permissions so in case she clicks on something she can't see, the computer is safe.

I am at a loss why it keeps freezing up on her.  I have my guesses but she doesn't like them.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[itsmyname]

@Patsy6031 --  laptop was just purchased in December 

That should imply that the original HP Warranty is still active, meaning that you should contact HP Support to exercise the warranty, to get it repaired/replaced. 

Maybe, sign-up for the HP "CarePack" -- that will add extra year(s) of warranty coverage.

If you start-up the computer, do you have an option to launch the HP Hardware Diagnostics?

If so, I would run the "short DST" (short number of minutes, disk-drive status test), to see if the disk-drive is failing. If the test "fails", do not run the "long DST" -- that will certainly bring the disk-drive closer to its death.

Or, on your computer, download the free SPECCY software onto a USB memory-stick.

Move the memory-stick to  her computer, logon to the "admin" ID, and install SPECCY.

Run it, and expand the "storage" section, to view the SMART report for the disk-drive, to look for any "non-green" markers, indicating that the disk-drive might be failing.

Reference: S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia

for what is being monitored.