I have an HP Pavilion laptop purchased in January 2010 with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit operating system connected to a 2003 network server. Upon restart, access to Microsoft Publisher and the company database open "in the blink of an eye." Within one to two hours, the process becomes sluggish with the message "not responding" in Publisher, the database, and even in Microsoft Word. Two HP desktops purchased in February 2010 in adjoining offices have Windows 7 Professional OS and never run sluggish. What can I do to fix the problem? Since the laptop works well for the first couple of hours of the workday, I assume that it is a software, not a hardware, problem.

Something is probably leaking memory, it could be a driver or it could be something else. Try updating your network drivers and see if that helps any.