Please Help

Whenever posting questions on these forums, please give us as much information as possible about your computer. Depending on your issue, we might need the operating system, processor speed, amount of RAM installed, brand name of the computer, (if there is one), and any EXACT error messages you are receiving. The more information you give us, the better informed our answer will be.

Since it appears like the drivers may have not been installed when the computer was handed over to you, have you tried installing them?

When you bought the second hand computer, did you also get the operating system and driver CD's that normally accompany a computer? Maybe a "Recovery CD"?

Hope this helps and let us know more.

Grif

More information (OS and specs) would definately be helpful here, but in any case I'd recommend starting off by reinstalling Windows. It sounds like key files and drivers have been corrupted/erased, and I suspect other things will turn up as well. Since you just received it, I'd back up any info you placed on it then reinstall the OS.

If it came with Windows XP's retail CD, you can perform a repair installation. If it has an OEM version of XP, or an older OS, you can download a program such as Everest, which will provide all of your system's specs. It will inform you the brand of the optical drives and other components so that you can go to their webpage and download the latest software/drivers. Before that, you'll want to stop by Windows Update and the manufacturer's website to see what they offer...more of a one-stop-shop. However, these are only quick fixes for the problems that have reared their heads. You probably also have malware issues and other corruption, which will take a lot of time and effort to fix. It's best to simply get it over with by wiping it clean and starting over.

Hope this helps,
John