Try installing Ubuntu Linux on your old laptop. It won’t help with hardware issues like dead pixels but it will fix OS related issues. Best of all it is FREE.
Check compatibility first and you can even run the os from a thumb drive (without actually installing) to test compatibility.
My 7 year old dell laptop was dying a couple of years ago. I installed Ubuntu and it has been running like a champ ever since.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
I have 4 older laptops that are either WinXP or Win7. I’ve made all dual boot with Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. Mint is very easy to install and, for older machines, the Mint 13 version is generally compatible. The current version is 16.