Laptop fall. Hardware check?

[Dreamweaver]

My laptop, Windows 10, has had a couple of falls in the past few months, so I've been wary of damage. There are some occasions when it seems to be over-burdened, but by restarting it all seems back to normal for a while. But today a suggestion popped up in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen that I should check my hardware. It disappeared quickly, before I could click on it or anything. I'm unsure how to proceed. Some sites offer free trials, is that a good way to go?

[Perrorist]

Keep away from sites offering system checks. Difficult to say, of course, without looking at the laptop, but it sounds like your hard disk or RAM is filling up. Restarting clears it and then it gradually fills up again.

[Dreamweaver]

Thanks Perry. Will look into that

[Perrorist]

Any joy?

[Dreamweaver]

It's latest foible is that I can't search with Google. I get a message

This site can’t be reached
www.google.com’s server IP address could not be found.
Try running Windows Network Diagnostics.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED
_NXDOMAIN

Diagnostics found nothing.

[Perrorist]

Have you installed a VPN?

Which ISP are you with?

Try DuckDuckGo for your search engine (it's the one I use, as it respects your privacy).