Well, the splash screen says winXP,  but when I boot it up to the icons screen it says drivers not found, for the modem, for the sound, for the video, which is weird, cause I can see the output on my monitor.  If I install XP from scratch, will it take care of the "drivers not found" error.  Im trying to FIX this for a FRIEND so I dont have the exact wording, but the gist off the error is that it cant find some drivers.
Does your friend have the drivers disk?
If you go to the computer manufacturers website they should have drivers available to download.
If you do a clean install you will still probably need the drivers disk.ya i guess ill have to go the computer manufacturers website, but how do I know what hardware is installed.  If I go to device manager, will it list the manufacturer and stuff for each device

ill ask my friend tomorrow if he has the drivers disk.  chances are not, as he bought the computer at a garage sale
DLoad, install and run Everest Home.what is everest home
Let's CLARIFY couple of things.
Did this problem just start?
Is computer operable?
Any errors in Device Manager?
You have at least couple of options to fix the problem, before reinstalling WINDOWS, but you have to answer the above questions, first.Computer is operable but it gives error windows saying drivers missing
device manager has a bunch of yellow exclamation marks

My friend noticed the problems when he bought the computer at a garage sale, so Im pretty sure they were there even before
It's clear now...thanks.
Since it's garage sale computer, I'd definitely start with clean Windows install.
Couple of reasons:
- you don't have any data to save
- who knows what's lurking on that computer
- some drivers issues may get fixedbroni,

cool Ill do that, and hopefully thatll fix some driver issues.  But what of those drivers that it cant find.  Where do I get those from?  I can look in device manager to find out what the devices are that have the exclamation mark, but is that the only way to find out the manufacturer name for each of those devices and then download the drivers from the manufacterers website? Quote

But what of those drivers that it cant find.

DLoad, install and run Everest Home.