Computer Help and Support

Hard drive crashed 3 days later. Not that it was unexpected, and I don't think connected with the contractor
use. SmartDrive had been warning about failure for 15 months. It was a Vista OS so I didn't bother to replace it,
just backed up some things. But did lose a lot.

I did some calculations ... i bought that system used in 2011, it was so heavily used the owner was trashing it,
and the DVD drive was worn out, needed replacement. Then my system runs an average of 13 hours a day.
So I put 25,000 hours on the hard drive in 5.5 years, plus what it had before.

So now I am running the same PC on DVD-only boot - with Linux Mint Serena. Very good.

And I bought a very lightly used basic laptop, and that is almost totally locked up. Will barely download, it just sits
and chatters for hours. The virus scan said no problems. Trying to download malwarebytes, but it's not doing that either.
Can't tell if it's downloaded updates, typical of a new OS, or infected with something, or it's just the bloatware it came with.

Tempted to go with Linux in a used PC loaded with ram and no OS installed.

But how do I get the new laptop operational?