EndNote incredibly slow

You have rebooted I assume?  

On a specific document?  If you you may want to clean up the document, to ensure there are no corrupt fields in it. MAKE A COPY OF THE DOCUMENT. then follow these steps for your version/operating system.   http://endnote.com/kb/81143

Have you updated word or endnote on that laptop, if so, you may want to unformat and reformat the word documents to ensure they are consistent with the way the current versions of the two softwares, talk to each other (which would also be fixed by the above steps).  

Is it the correct library for synching?

Syncing usually takes long the first time.  In fact mine timed out several times the last time I synced a new version of my library.

Are there any error messages with the sync?

I have my preferences off to automatically sync.  So it only syncs when I ask it to, with blue sync the button on the top in endnote.

Does it think it has finished syncing,  Run sync status,near top on right hand library group listings.  If the library you have open, is the synced library it wil be there –  if it is the wrong library, that shouldn’t be there, and if you click “sync” in the top, you will get a warning that this library will be merged into your synced library.