Solve : Bought used PC with Win XP Pro & MS Office 2007...?

1.	Solve : Bought used PC with Win XP Pro & MS Office 2007...?
Answer» Bought used PC with Win XP Pro & MS Office 2007. It's an HP 5150 SFF 1.8GHz. I checked out the PC before I bought it and all looked good, although it wasn't online. I get it HOME and it is password PROTECTED, amazingly the person I bought it from has never returned my calls. I was able to change password and actually get it to boot up ok. I noticed that the PC and all the software is registered to some online school. I have no restore disk or anything but do have the COA on the box for XP Pro. My questions: 1.) If I go online with this PC, am I going to be able to UPDATE the OS and software without any worries of it being registered to this school? 2.) Is there a way to get rid of ALL the FILES that pertain to the school without messing up the OS? There seem to be a lot of "text files with a little gear?" that make mention of the school in the main directory. I guess I'm afraid if I go online that I may be risking legal trouble if this thing turns out to be stolen or something. I really don't think it was, as I bought from, what seemed to be a nice older couple that bought a new laptop and said they didn't use this any more. Any help, suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!! I bought this for my kids birthday and I'm half afraid to use it!!Welcome to the CH forums. Quote I guess I'm afraid if I go online that I may be risking legal trouble if this thing turns out to be stolen or something. Quote I really don't think it was, as I bought from, what seemed to be a nice older couple that bought a new laptop and said they didn't use this any more. Quote amazingly the person I bought it from has never returned my calls. I wonder why the calls were never returned. If you're really concerned you could try to get in touch with the online school. Check that the COA attached to the box is the same as the one installed. To answer your questions 1.) You should be safe unless the school has installed software which will report home. 2.) All the files could be deleted without affecting the OS. At some stage you will need an Operating System cd to reinstall/repair or otherwise maintain the operating system. Good luck. The school in question, sounds like they did not secure their computers very well. I was in the IT department of my school district for a semester. As there are things from the school on there, it may be stolen. My school district FDISKed to full size of hard drive, formatted, and wiped the hard drive before donating. If it was not stolen, the school should have its discharge on record. If you don't mind the school's programs, or a simple delete will set them straight, ignore the remainder of reply. There may be a program called DeepFreeze. It will not allow you to change anything other than the BIOS when it active. An icon of a computer frozen over without a blinking red CIRCLE slash on it on the system tray will indicate an active DeepFreeze. You should not have rights to view programs and other files from that school. BIOS should be password protected. The school may give any passwords and the names of files to undo anything they did. If they don't share that info, for good reason; a reformat, reinstall, and/or BIOS reset may be in your future. Start with the BIOS reset and tell it to start from Floppy, should be default. To reset BIOS close a jumper labeled CLR and/or reseat the lithium button cell. Secure a Windows boot disk and tell it to start with command prompt or something like that, option 3. Tell it format C:. Reinstall windows.

Answer»

Bought used PC with Win XP Pro & MS Office 2007. It's an HP 5150 SFF 1.8GHz.

I checked out the PC before I bought it and all looked good, although it wasn't online.
I get it HOME and it is password PROTECTED, amazingly the person I bought it from has never returned my calls. I was able to change password and actually get it to boot up ok. I noticed that the PC and all the software is registered to some online school.
I have no restore disk or anything but do have the COA on the box for XP Pro.
My questions:
1.) If I go online with this PC, am I going to be able to UPDATE the OS and software without any worries of it being registered to this school?

2.) Is there a way to get rid of ALL the FILES that pertain to the school without messing up the OS? There seem to be a lot of "text files with a little gear?" that make mention of the school in the main directory.

I guess I'm afraid if I go online that I may be risking legal trouble if this thing turns out to be stolen or something. I really don't think it was, as I bought from, what seemed to be a nice older couple that bought a new laptop and said they didn't use this any more.

Any help, suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!! I bought this for my kids birthday and I'm half afraid to use it!!Welcome to the CH forums.

Quote

I guess I'm afraid if I go online that I may be risking legal trouble if this thing turns out to be stolen or something.

Quote

I really don't think it was, as I bought from, what seemed to be a nice older couple that bought a new laptop and said they didn't use this any more.

Quote

amazingly the person I bought it from has never returned my calls.

I wonder why the calls were never returned. If you're really concerned you could try to get in touch with the online school.

Check that the COA attached to the box is the same as the one installed.

To answer your questions 1.) You should be safe unless the school has installed software which will report home. 2.) All the files could be deleted without affecting the OS.

At some stage you will need an Operating System cd to reinstall/repair or otherwise maintain the operating system.

Good luck.

The school in question, sounds like they did not secure their computers very well. I was in the IT department of my school district for a semester.
As there are things from the school on there, it may be stolen. My school district FDISKed to full size of hard drive, formatted, and wiped the hard drive before donating.
If it was not stolen, the school should have its discharge on record.
If you don't mind the school's programs, or a simple delete will set them straight, ignore the remainder of reply.
There may be a program called DeepFreeze. It will not allow you to change anything other than the BIOS when it active. An icon of a computer frozen over without a blinking red CIRCLE slash on it on the system tray will indicate an active DeepFreeze. You should not have rights to view programs and other files from that school. BIOS should be password protected. The school may give any passwords and the names of files to undo anything they did.
If they don't share that info, for good reason; a reformat, reinstall, and/or BIOS reset may be in your future. Start with the BIOS reset and tell it to start from Floppy, should be default. To reset BIOS close a jumper labeled CLR and/or reseat the lithium button cell. Secure a Windows boot disk and tell it to start with command prompt or something like that, option 3. Tell it format C:. Reinstall windows.

Solve : Bought used PC with Win XP Pro & MS Office 2007...?

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