the machine eventually sorted out whatever it was downloading and installing. Since then it has been SLOOOOOOWWWW at doing everything (actually the only thing I have been attempting are browsing the net by Firefox). Task manager doesn't show anything loading the CPU more than a few percent but nothing is working at normal speed. I ran Spybot, Avast and MalwareBytes, none of them reported anything sinister. I have defragged as well.
As it stands it won't play Youtube videos in real time, it manages a few frames and then misses several seconds and then plays a few more frames etc. taking an age to do so. If I pause as soon as it starts and let the whole video download then it plays straight through at proper speed.
I think the issue is connectivity bandwidth. I have not knowingly changed the drivers for the wifi and the hardware is unaltered since the machine was new. Other devices in the house work at normal speed on same wireless router. Inssider, installed on the machine, shows good connectivity and no conflict on wifi channels.
I don't know what to try next, any ideas will be gratefully received,
Thanks.
Rans6.......................................