Thank you both for your suggestions.
My main (desktop) computer failed about two months ago but I was able to copy the info from the HD onto an external HD. I found old versions of Google Earth (GE) there and installed Ver 3.0 It allowed the choice of renering engines and GE works fine with "OpenGL"
Then I downloaded Ver 4.0 and updated using it. IT NOW ALLOWS ME THE CHOICE OF RENDERING ENGINES.
Weird!!!!
The bottom line is that I have a recent version of G.E. which uses OpenGL and works on this laptop.
Thank you both.
seacue