I reformatted and reinstalled, this time installing to MBR (read: I followed directions from the video..ahem). A bit difficult to follow his accent, but it was a great video nonetheless. Once finished and updated I then found that I wasn't able to get videos to play smoothly from YouTube or CBS.com. Watching DVD movies was also choppy and practically unwatchable to any degree.
MacPup has been uninstalled and replaced with AntiX, which is also new to me. I went from Mepis to LinuxMint years ago. Anyways; Mepis AntiX worked right out of the box, is quick and attractive, and all video test ran smoothly. Jackpot. Video and simple web browsing is all this laptop will mainly be used for.
Thanks to all for your assistance.