Get a Linux system to try that out. Honestly, if your laptop is 10 years old, I would even recommend running Linux on it as a main operating system, since it is much faster, especially on older devices. But at least for testing purposes, you should try out using a live Linux USB stick (or DVD / CD). That way you can diagnose if it's really a hardware issue, or something weird with Windows / Drivers / etc.

Ubuntu live system setup

If you don't know how to create and boot a live Linux USB Stick for tryout: Use https://unetbootin.github.io/. Download the application to your Windows system and run it. Find an USB stick with at least 4GB, and be sure to empty it before proceeding, since it will be completely overwritten. Select your Stick in Unetbootin and a distribution, like Ubuntu. Then wait for the download and copy to the stick to finish, and restart your computer. You need to select the stick as a boot medium, so hit keys like F11, F12, F1, backspace, esc or similiar immediately after turning on your computer. Refer to your computers' manual, or to one of the many tutorials available online, if you're stuck. This official tutorial explains it as well: Try Ubuntu tutorial

If you don't have an USB stick at hand, or if your laptop is too old to support booting from an USB drive, you can of course use a DVD or even a CD to try out the Linux. Get the ISO image file from the Ubuntu Desktop Download page, and burn it to a DVD using a normal DVD writing application on your windows system. This will get you the 64bit installation file, which is 1.5GB in size, and therefore needs to be burned on a DVD.

If that doesn't work, your laptop proably doesn't support 64bit. Then you'll need to get the 32bit image by selecting your nearest mirror at the mirror selection page, click the http link on the information page of that mirror, and get the file ubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-i386.iso from the directory 16.04.03.

If you need the installer to fit on a CD, you can use the Ubuntu netinstaller, which will download all the files at runtime. Get the amd64-file for 64bit or the i386-file for 32bit from the netboot installer page or the wiki article.

That way, you'll be able to diagnose, if it's really a hardware issue, or just a windows issue.

##Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu

Edit: Since your laptop is really low-end (forgot about that obvious thing) I'd better recommend using Lubuntu instead of plain Ubuntu. It is even easier to download the ISO images of Lubuntu than the Ubuntu ones: Just hit the Lubuntu download page, and you're presented with download buttons for 64bit and 32bit right away. The alternate versions of the ISO are even small enough to fit a CD, so no net installer needed. And for Unetbootin, the procedure stays the same, just select Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu as the distribution.

Get a Linux system to try that out. Honestly, if your laptop is 10 years old, I would even recommend running Linux on it as a main operating system, since it is much faster, especially on older devices. But at least for testing purposes, you should try out using a live Linux USB stick (or DVD / CD). That way you can diagnose if it's really a hardware issue, or something weird with Windows / Drivers / etc.

Ubuntu live system setup

If you don't know how to create and boot a live Linux USB Stick for tryout: Use https://unetbootin.github.io/. Download the application to your Windows system and run it. Find an USB stick with at least 4GB, and be sure to empty it before proceeding, since it will be completely overwritten. Select your Stick in Unetbootin and a distribution, like Ubuntu. Then wait for the download and copy to the stick to finish, and restart your computer. You need to select the stick as a boot medium, so hit keys like F11, F12, F1, backspace, esc or similiar immediately after turning on your computer. Refer to your computers' manual, or to one of the many tutorials available online, if you're stuck. This official tutorial explains it as well: Try Ubuntu tutorial

If you don't have an USB stick at hand, or if your laptop is too old to support booting from an USB drive, you can of course use a DVD or even a CD to try out the Linux. Get the ISO image file from the Ubuntu Desktop Download page, and burn it to a DVD using a normal DVD writing application on your windows system. This will get you the 64bit installation file, which is 1.5GB in size, and therefore needs to be burned on a DVD.

If that doesn't work, your laptop proably doesn't support 64bit. Then you'll need to get the 32bit image by selecting your nearest mirror at the mirror selection page, click the http link on the information page of that mirror, and get the file ubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-i386.iso from the directory 16.04.03.

If you need the installer to fit on a CD, you can use the Ubuntu netinstaller, which will download all the files at runtime. Get the amd64-file for 64bit or the i386-file for 32bit from the netboot installer page or the wiki article.

That way, you'll be able to diagnose, if it's really a hardware issue, or just a windows issue.

Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu

Edit: Since your laptop is really low-end (forgot about that obvious thing) I'd better recommend using Lubuntu instead of plain Ubuntu. It is even easier to download the ISO images of Lubuntu than the Ubuntu ones: Just hit the Lubuntu download page, and you're presented with download buttons for 64bit and 32bit right away. The alternate versions of the ISO are even small enough to fit a CD, so no net installer needed. And for Unetbootin, the procedure stays the same, just select Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu as the distribution.

Get a Linux system to try that out. Honestly, if your laptop is 10 years old, I would even recommend running Linux on it as a main operating system, since it is much faster, especially on older devices. But at least for testing purposes, you should try out using a live Linux USB stick (or DVD / CD). That way you can diagnose if it's really a hardware issue, or something weird with Windows / Drivers / etc.

If you don't know how to create and boot a live Linux USB Stick for tryout: Use https://unetbootin.github.io/. Download the application to your Windows system and run it. Find an USB stick with at least 4GB, and be sure to empty it before proceeding, since it will be completely overwritten. Select your Stick in Unetbootin and a distribution, like Ubuntu. Then wait for the download and copy to the stick to finish, and restart your computer. You need to select the stick as a boot medium, so hit keys like F11, F12, F1, backspace, esc or similiar immediately after turning on your computer. Refer to your computers' manual, or to one of the many tutorials available online, if you're stuck. This official tutorial explains it as well: Try Ubuntu tutorial

If you don't have an USB stick at hand, or if your laptop is too old to support booting from an USB drive, you can of course use a DVD or even a CD to try out the Linux. Get the ISO image file from the Ubuntu Desktop Download page, and burn it to a DVD using a normal DVD writing application on your windows system. This will get you the 64bit installation file, which is 1.5GB in size, and therefore needs to be burned on a DVD.

If that doesn't work, your laptop proably doesn't support 64bit. Then you'll need to get the 32bit image by selecting your nearest mirror at the mirror selection page, click the http link on the information page of that mirror, and get the file ubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-i386.iso from the directory 16.04.03.

If you need the installer to fit on a CD, you can use the Ubuntu netinstaller, which will download all the files at runtime. Get the amd64-file for 64bit or the i386-file for 32bit from the netboot installer page or the wiki article.

That way, you'll be able to diagnose, if it's really a hardware issue, or just a windows issue.

Get a Linux system to try that out. Honestly, if your laptop is 10 years old, I would even recommend running Linux on it as a main operating system, since it is much faster, especially on older devices. But at least for testing purposes, you should try out using a live Linux USB stick (or DVD / CD). That way you can diagnose if it's really a hardware issue, or something weird with Windows / Drivers / etc.

Ubuntu live system setup

If you don't know how to create and boot a live Linux USB Stick for tryout: Use https://unetbootin.github.io/. Download the application to your Windows system and run it. Find an USB stick with at least 4GB, and be sure to empty it before proceeding, since it will be completely overwritten. Select your Stick in Unetbootin and a distribution, like Ubuntu. Then wait for the download and copy to the stick to finish, and restart your computer. You need to select the stick as a boot medium, so hit keys like F11, F12, F1, backspace, esc or similiar immediately after turning on your computer. Refer to your computers' manual, or to one of the many tutorials available online, if you're stuck. This official tutorial explains it as well: Try Ubuntu tutorial

If you don't have an USB stick at hand, or if your laptop is too old to support booting from an USB drive, you can of course use a DVD or even a CD to try out the Linux. Get the ISO image file from the Ubuntu Desktop Download page, and burn it to a DVD using a normal DVD writing application on your windows system. This will get you the 64bit installation file, which is 1.5GB in size, and therefore needs to be burned on a DVD.

If that doesn't work, your laptop proably doesn't support 64bit. Then you'll need to get the 32bit image by selecting your nearest mirror at the mirror selection page, click the http link on the information page of that mirror, and get the file ubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-i386.iso from the directory 16.04.03.

If you need the installer to fit on a CD, you can use the Ubuntu netinstaller, which will download all the files at runtime. Get the amd64-file for 64bit or the i386-file for 32bit from the netboot installer page or the wiki article.

That way, you'll be able to diagnose, if it's really a hardware issue, or just a windows issue.

##Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu

Edit: Since your laptop is really low-end (forgot about that obvious thing) I'd better recommend using Lubuntu instead of plain Ubuntu. It is even easier to download the ISO images of Lubuntu than the Ubuntu ones: Just hit the Lubuntu download page, and you're presented with download buttons for 64bit and 32bit right away. The alternate versions of the ISO are even small enough to fit a CD, so no net installer needed. And for Unetbootin, the procedure stays the same, just select Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu as the distribution.