Ok.. Regarding missing programs on start menu.
1. ALL show up on the add and remove programs screen
2. I have not yet created a drive image (that I know of?) so no, these programs were never on the menu. There seems to be no order- it's not as if at one certain point all programs installed past that were not included in the start menu
3. I have located the physical location of programs not showing up on the start menu. 2 are in the "programs" folder on drive C, 2 are in the "programs (x86)" folder on drive C, and 2 are in the "programs" folder on drive D.
4. Is there an option when installing that would affect this? For several programs I chose NOT to include a start menu shortcut. I thought that this referred to the initial screen when clicking the start button, not the "all programs" list? Did I assume incorrectly? Is there a way to fix that?
Regarding the videos...
1. I don't really have any videos on the computer other than my daughter
2. I tried some different scenarios. The videos tend to crash at random in all 4 of these situations: A) Watching through PlayMemories, stored on HDD. B) Watching through PlayMemories, stored on SSD. C) Watching through windows media player, stored on HDD. D) Watching through windows media player, stored on SSD.
3. Somewhere along the way I had Windows check to see if the codecs were ok and it said that they were.
4. These are AVCHD file format
Regarding video card...
1. I cleaned it out when moving all the computer parts- majorly dusty. Easily running at 40 Celsius with practically no fan right now. yay!
2. If I wanted to improve my video card situation, should I cheaply buy a used EAH3870 like mine and put them in crossfire configuration? ...or would I be better off choosing a brand new budget card?
THANK YOU For suggestions!