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How do I clear a laptop of the previous owners setup & files
Comments
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You almost certainly don't have all the necessary drivers as I warned about earlier.
Use the device manager (control panel / system) and look for exclamation marks to see what isn't working.
You can try the laptop manufacturers website and if you still draw a blank the free option of DriverMax will eventually get you sorted out with any luck (the free version restricts you to a driver a day iirc)
http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/
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I just realised - you'll need to get some method of connecting to the internet working for DriverMax to be any use.0 -
Does it have an internal wireless modem? Older laptops will need an external one to be pluggged into a USB slot.0
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Also if it's an older laptop, the built in wireless might only support WEP. If your router is WPA/WPA2 then the laptop won't be able to connect.
I had an old laptop a while ago with a WEP-only wifi card.0 -
Deleted_User wrote: »Also if it's an older laptop, the built in wireless might only support WEP. If your router is WPA/WPA2 then the laptop won't be able to connect.
I had an old laptop a while ago with a WEP-only wifi card.
the laptop was bought new in 2006 & has a button on it that turns on the wireless connection, before I overwrote the windows there was also a light lit on the laptop indicating that the wireless was on0 -
That will be handled by a little "helper application" that runs in the background. You'll need to go to the manufacturers website to see if it is available for download.
Are you certain that there is no recovery partition? As I said at the start that would be the easiest option by far and you wouldn't have this sort of problem.0 -
when i had a look at that it was asking for a user admin password which i don't have - even if I was looking at the right thing in the 1st place - as you've probably gathered i'm computer illiterate - as long as its working & I can pick up my email, check my banking & shop I don't do anything else on computers0
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