Bad News?!?!

Finally got the summons to do something to improve my aged mothers equally
aged Compaq Pres' 5170 which runs so slowly it's unbelievable (recent OS
renewal W98SE, nothing improved) and l was wondering what l'll find inside
the case...

Compaqs site specs list the 5170 at 10Gb HD, but this one is 6Gb from new,
so l cannot believe anything l read on the Compaq site... but sys' info
tells me it's a 64Mb ram machine with a 100Mhz bus, 4Mb graphics chip (on
Mobo?) and a PIII processor...

Can l scrap Compaqs software (would locating individual sound/modem/mobo
drivers be impossible or not?) and reformat and reload the OS without the
Compaq flavour?

Also... how do l get into CMOS setup on this machine?

My even older K6-350Mhz ****es all over the Presario... the Compaq sounds
just like a Geiger Counter most of the time... the HD just clicks and clicks
away like there had been a nuclear accident when the PC's asked to perform
the simplest task...

Want to scan a photo? Got 2 hours to spare? That's how long it takes to scan
and allow you to manipulate ONE 6" x 4" colour photo on an HP all in one USB
device... so you see what l mean about slow... but this machine really takes
the biscuit...

And Dixons told my dear old Mum it was a top flight machine back in... err,
must have been 1999 l think... l remember Amstrad machine using C60
cassettes for data storage that were faster beasts... unfortunately l was
out of the country when she took it upon herself to wander into Dixons
without telling a soul she had taken her credit card and was on a mission...

Lack of FE or BSOD errors makes me think there's no burned out hardware...

Could it have been like this from new? Does anyone know?

Any replies/suggestions most welcome...

Frank