It’s an old pc, running XP but it’s been fine until a few days ago, I run a disk defrag thing and ever since then it struggles to load videos and images. You tube videos only seem to load about half way and stop, I get the swirly thing going on but nothing happens it doesn’t carry on playing, same with images on here and websites, images don’t always load and I have to keep refreshing the page. It’s a bit of a pain especially when shopping on the net. Any ideas what has happened? I’ve run an antivirus scan, and a malware scan, it came up with some issues that have been dealt with but it’s made no difference. I also tried a system restore to a previous date but it’s not having it, says it can’t do it. I know it’s probably time for a new pc but it was fine a few days ago. 😕

Minefield.

XP for starters is unsupported since 2014 and vulnerable due to lack of security updates.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/14223/windows-xp-end-of-support

If you’re running Microsoft Security Essentials for anti-virus it may not be getting all the updates it needs.

I run a disk defrag thing and ever since then it struggles to load videos and images

That could suggest a hardware issue and/or corruption. Defrag may have run into corrupted sectors on the disc and stuff has been moved around a lot to avoid it. Or just got corrupted anyway.

I’d run a disc check also. Old hardware though and the disc could be on the way out.

Best replacement is an SSD, but you really want Windows 10 to make the most of it, and you want a better PC to make the most out of Windows 10.

If you’re doing basic browsing and shopping on the net, maybe consider a cheap tablet. Can still sort the PC out or replace it, but it’s cheap and means you can stay “online”. Though you’ll need WiFi.

Try clearing browser history and cache. Often fixes random problems but as above XP isn’t ideal for connecting to the internet

Thanks, I’ll try a disc check, I cleared the browser history and cache too.
If I get a new PC will my old software work on it, I think this is a 32bit and aren’t new pc’s 64bit? I have photoshop, vegas movie studio HD, office 2003, some games like half life, IL2 Sturmovik, old games but I still like to play them now and then. It’ll be an expensive pain if I have to update all my software too?

64bit will run 32bit programs.

There may be compatibility issues with Windows 10, but there may be fixes or patches to make them work.

Office 2003 is pushing it but guess it may work. If not and you don’t want to upgrade it you may be better off with LibreOffice, OpenOffice or just using Google Docs online. Though I recommend an Office 365 subscription, but obviously that’s expense.

Half Life – if you get Steam (free to install, some games free, many not), you can enter the CD keys for some old games, including Half Life, and that will get you the latest version plus loads of other HL related stuff, HL Source (updated graphics) etc.

Like Microsoft, I’ve given up supporting XP. All other things aside, it’s a time bomb.

I’d largely agree with what Kenny said (though I’d be tempted to run the Windows 7 Readiness Tool for giggles just to see what it comes back with). Could be malware, could be the hard drive’s dying, could be random corruption, could be a lot of other things. For the price of hardware these days I’d fix it with a new one.

Re: Office, many workplaces subscribe to MS’s Home User Programme. I got Office 2016 for a tenner via HUP.

Mmm, think a new one might be needed (about time I suppose)

*Another thing – thinking of replacing my notebook, but a quick look at pc world shows anything small 10 to 12in screen, only comes with ssd or emmc memory now, is that right, and it seems very small memory 16/32gb, I’ve got sd cards bigger than that! What gives? No hdd? Only when I’ve gone away before I’ve taken my notebook and when I’ve recorded gopro stuff I’ve transfered it to my notebook to watch and clear the sd card, if I do that now I’ll be filling up that memory in no time?

*it’s been a while since I’ve looked at this sort of stuff 😳

13″ with 1TB drive

XP is quite new in comparison to my laptop (Vista) and the desktop (Win2000), Vista has almost stopped working, but Win2000 is great, so long as you don’t expect it to work on line or with anything new.

XP is quite new in comparison to my laptop (Vista)

Erm, eh? XP is 5 years older than Vista.

😳

I think moving to Win 10 will pose few problems if any.

IL-2 works great, at least this version does;

https://www.gog.com/game/il_2_sturmovik_1946

DRM free and no DVD to insert, it’ll run off very modest specs given how old it is too.

LibreOffice 5.3 is IMO miles better than Office 2003, being that it’s modern and updated. I often use it at home (work is O365 and Office 2016). No problems, just a few short cuts are different etc. You’ll likely also find other Open Source software to replace any other old programs you had so shouldn’t be much need to buy new software.

’13” with 1TB drive’ oof, from £499! Bit over my budget if I’ll need to get a new pc as well. My Acer Aspire 1 with 250gb was only about £199 5 years ago, that would run HD gopro videos as well as most of what my pc could do – is there nothing like that available now? I’m going on a big campervan bike trip soon so want to take videos but save them on the way, whats going to be the best way to do that (maybe another thread for that one?)

Il2 1946 is what I’ve got on disc, great game!

quick look at pc world shows anything small 10 to 12in screen, only comes with ssd or emmc memory now, is that right, and it seems very small memory 16/32gb

Those will be tablets, or tablet like in a notebook form factor.

Typically storage is pretty low on these. Depends though if they are Windows or Android. The latter and it’s not so bad.

Full Windows, you really want 64gb minimum just for the system drive if it has eMMC. Often you don’t get more than that with eMMC though. Can expand with SD but it’s much slower. Use that for data. A higher spec tablet/notebook may have SSD.

As for SSD, decent desktops and laptop PCs will come with SSD now, or if they don’t you want to replace a traditional hard disc with SSD, at least on the system drive. Much faster. Though not that cheap so they’re often specced with lower sizes. In a desktop I’d have an SSD for system drive and then a big 1TB traditional drive as second drive for data.

i found that xp games that would run under win7 stopped running under win10 with no patch or workaround i could find- sturmovik being one game that no longer worked. I once had an xp pc run really slow because of a faulty mouse – no indication from system mouse was at fault. Change in mouse solved problem (not suggesting this is your problem other than windows faults can be hard to diagnose)

I’d have thought games requiring XP would work fine in a VM on a modern machine (Hyper-V / VirtualBox / VMware Workstation).

– not tried a vm .

Internet connection issue/Wi-Fi problems will give the symptoms you suggest.