Installation help on old Dell d610 Latitude

[Biciclettapc]

I need some assistance.

Trying to squeeze a bit more life from a friends laptop.

Dell Latitude D610. Forgot the CPU speed (1.86ghz?) but I have 1gb ram, 60gb hdd and what used to run XP (slowly)

Both LM Cinnamon and Xfce will install with no issues (32bit). Initially I loaded Cinn but due to the problems I am having I tried installing Xfce due to the lightweight desktop thinking it might be the issue.

The issue I am having is I can not get it to restart either DE after initial install on. One time I might get GRUB and then nothing after that. Sometimes I get LM screen but then it stops. Sometimes I get the login screen, which I attempt to log in then nothing. Then sometimes it restarts without issue.
Upon installation of Xfce I have not installed any updates, which has no effect, where I had updated under Cinn. atempts.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated before it finds its way to the recycler or Goodwill

Paul