I cleared out some unwnanted and never used files and disconnected the external drives then ran one of the videos already copied to the hard drive and the result was good. But then I ran a 2nd video and there was no change, still freezing. I didn't defrag because it told me that it was done on a schedule and the next one due was only 2 days away on the 11th.
I tried using the Windows 10 laptop, the videos are really good and faultless but it is not straightforward to use and there are a couple of problems. My main use of these videos is, when I am on a journey if I see something of interest or suspect I may have passed a camera and want to know my speed. I flip open the camcorder on the dash and make a quick reminder to myself of time and date. . Then at home I get all the dashcam vids on the screen and hover over several of them till I find the files I want, then I know which to watch. The trouble with the laptop is this hover feature doesn't work and I have to open each video to see the time and date on the screen. Very time consuming.
Also for some reason it does not display all the videos that I know are on the SD card. For example, it only has all the videos that were recorded on the 4th of September, there are no more, yet if I go to the Vista PC it shows what I know are there, all the videos that were recorded on the 6th and 7th.
If only the laptop was more user friendly I could use it exclusively for watching the vids I need to see and carry on with everything else on the PC without doing anything complicated (for me) or expensive.
I have a friend in the village who knows more than me so I think the best course is to take the laptop round there and see if he can make it sing, because I cerrtainly don't have the song sheet.
Or perhaps have him come round here and check the PC for all the suggestions gratefully recieved above.