Brian Gaff (Sofa) used his keyboard to write :
Try an ssd first.

I have decided to leave it as is - an SSD of comparable size to my HDD
would make it a very expensive upgrade for what is now a battered old
machine. John's diagnostic method suggests I have more memory than I
need.

It's by no means slow, but a boost in response would not go amiss.

Fixing one issue a while ago, I caused another one - I managed to
damage the one of the USB + microSD card connections to the m/board. I
managed to pick up a good, cheap used one a couple of weeks ago, all
now working - in the process I noticed a spare ram slot, which got me
wondering if it might be worth while my doubling the ram, as cheap
upgrade.