Persistent "Not Responding" Error Messages on MS Word, Excel & Chrome Browser on an HP Win 10 Laptop

[lwilson747]

Persistent "Not Responding" Error Messages on MS Word, Excel & Chrome Browser on an HP Win 10 Laptop

Friends,

I am persistently receiving "Not Responding" error messages when using MS Word and Excel as well as Chrome browser on my laptop (the Word  & Excel files reside on my hard drive). This issue is leading a major loss of time and productivity. Thank you for your help - I want to identify and resolve the root cause.

HP Laptop: Purchased in 2019 

Hard drive: 1 TB (50+ GB used)

RAM: 4 GB

OS: Win 10 (all Updates added)

Software - Chrome and MS Word and Excel: All up-to-date

Internet: Via my SP Consumer Cellular (connection is good, not great)

A/V: McAfee - Multiple scans run; no issues found

Any suggestions on how I might resolve whatever the root cause?

My default assumption (which may be right or wrong) is to simply add a bigger RAM Card (e.g. 20 GB).

Thank you for your help. Lawrence

[WAWood]

@lwilson747 

First of all, adding RAM is not going to make any difference -- so that would be wasting money.

Second, how old is the laptop and how long has this problem been happening?