How do I give my PC a thorough overhaul?

[Eireann]

CPU-Z snip:

[Chromatix]

All right, that fits with the age of the machine and what little reliable information I could find from the model number you provided. Core 2 Duo was a good CPU in its time, though that's far from the top model, and that was a *long* time ago.

There should be a lot more useful information under the other tabs of CPU-Z. Screenshots of those would be helpful, as well as of GPU-Z.

[Eireann]

Here are more screenshots:

[Eireann]

And the last one from CPU-Z:

[Chromatix]

So, *not* an Nvidia graphics card, but an AMD one. That requires a completely different set of drivers.

Let's get started. Download all of the following, then run them in order, one at a time:

Ninite installer for Firefox, Chrome, Java, Flash, K-Lite Codecs, 7-Zip & .NET 4.6
Display Driver Uninstaller - boot in Safe Mode first, use the "Clean & Restart" button.
AMD Driver Auto-Detect Utility

With any luck, that'll clear out most of the problems.

[Eireann]

So far, all is going very well! I followed the instructions and ran the programs, and it's humming right along!

Much easier than buying a new computer.

Thank you!

[Chromatix]

Okay, so video stuff is now working, and Firefox is no longer crashing? If so, that's great news.

The next stage, I think, is to try to speed things up a bit. There's only so much we can do for an old machine, but defragmenting the hard drive is usually a sure bet. The defrag utility built into Windows is crap, but Defraggler seems to work well.

Let it "replace" the Windows defragger when it asks, then set it up to run a "Defrag" session overnight. It might take more than one night if it's a tough job, so don't be afraid to stop it to get some work done, and start it again later.

[wolfie]

So, *not* an Nvidia graphics card, but an AMD one. That requires a completely different set of drivers.

For those not familiar with the backstory, some years back AMD bought ATI, one of the big manufacturers of graphics cards, so an AMD card is a "big name" graphics card (not like a system having Intel graphics - the other big CPU manufacturer). Back in the '90s, every year or so the trade press would be asking if ATI could survive now that $Competitor had come out with a fancy new product. Every time, it would be a different competitor - and nobody ever mentioned the competitor from the previous "scare" again as a maker of graphics cards. Ever heard of S3 or Matrox as "big name" graphics cards, at least in this century?

[Nunavut Pants]

No, but Nvidia seems to have chugged right along, year upon year.

[Eireann]

Firefox has still been hanging up, alas - but is that the card, or a problem with Firefox itself?

[Chromatix]

It could be a deeper problem than that. It's unlikely to be your graphics card; faults with that wouldn't affect just one application at a time. Ninite should also have replaced your old copy of Firefox with a new, up-to-date one.

I can't discount the possibility of an intermittent hardware fault elsewhere in the system, though. After all, you've already lost the use of the integrated graphics. Firefox is a very memory-hungry program, and is thus the most likely to stumble across a weak memory chip. It really is time to start saving up for a new machine.

If you have a spare USB flash drive (if not, get one), another overnight maintenance session could involve running Memtest86+. A copy is included with most Linux distros these days; you might also want to try using Linux for a day, to see whether the problem goes away while using it (and can thus be traced to bitrot in your Windows installation).

Here's a download link for a LiveCD of Linux Mint, and a utility to correctly install it on a USB flash drive. Because it's a LiveCD, you don't need to install it on the HDD to use it, but you probably won't be able to save files or browser history between reboots while in Linux.

To run Memtest86+ instead of Linux, press any key during the "countdown" while booting from the flash drive, and choose it from the menu that then appears. Let it run overnight. You could reasonably watch it for a few minutes to see if it turns up a problem very quickly.

[Eireann]

I've finally, FINALLY, defragged the C drive. I am now defragging the D drive (26%). Then it'll be the external hard drive.

Chromatix, that Defraggler works like a charm! I still don't know what the effect will be, but it's really cleaning things up!

[Eireann]

I've got the C and D drives defragged, but the external drive is giving me problems. And Firefox has been hanging up. What next?

[Chromatix]

Don't worry so much about the external drive - it isn't critical for performance.

Did you run Memtest86+ yet, or try the Linux LiveCD?

[Eireann]

No, I haven't done that; I don't have a spare flash drive.

What is causing Windows Explorer to keep hanging up?