Purchased new laptop at walmart but it is actually used

JasonBaxter

I just have a quick question on the direction that I should go.

I don’t have the PC in front of me so I just need some quick advice.   My daughter’s boyfriend received a NEW acer laptop from his dad as a Christmas present as it is supposed to be used for college this coming fall. (Purchased at Walmart CANADA)   He did not have any need to open it right away and told me (I am a certified tech) that one day he wanted my help to set up this laptop.   I said that he could do it on his own and he just would need to follow the prompts at startup and it will auto configure.  

So yesterday (3 month after purchase) he called and said that he got no prompts and it came up with a logon name Joanne and the windows is all in French.   Walmart seems to have sold him a returned laptop with personal data on it.  I rather avoid going back to Walmart and try to explain why it was not turned on for 4 months or how the data on this machine could be a privacy issue etc. 

I was planning on running the recovery tool – not sure what the key sequence is yet – but will this solve the language issue?   will it prompt me to choose a language during recovery.   I just want to get it back to factory default with windows in English and get it all sorted.   I know most would go to fight walmart but its not my fight to fight and I rather just resolve this issue for him.

RanY2J

JasonBaxter said:

I just have a quick question on the direction that I should go.

I don’t have the PC in front of me so I just need some quick advice.   My daughter’s boyfriend received a NEW acer laptop from his dad as a Christmas present as it is supposed to be used for college this coming fall. (Purchased at Walmart CANADA)   He did not have any need to open it right away and told me (I am a certified tech) that one day he wanted my help to set up this laptop.   I said that he could do it on his own and he just would need to follow the prompts at startup and it will auto configure.  

So yesterday (3 month after purchase) he called and said that he got no prompts and it came up with a logon name Joanne and the windows is all in French.   Walmart seems to have sold him a returned laptop with personal data on it.  I rather avoid going back to Walmart and try to explain why it was not turned on for 4 months or how the data on this machine could be a privacy issue etc. 

I was planning on running the recovery tool – not sure what the key sequence is yet – but will this solve the language issue?   will it prompt me to choose a language during recovery.   I just want to get it back to factory default with windows in English and get it all sorted.   I know most would go to fight walmart but its not my fight to fight and I rather just resolve this issue for him.

Hello Jason,

Good day to you. Yes! When you install a new OS from the recovery disk, it will be considered as a fresh OS installation and you will get an option to format the partition. Alongside that, the installation will ask you for the language, so choose English and your problem will be all over.

The original problem might be a bit more serious. In this regard, I would say do let them know about the used computer situation if possible. At least ask him to send an email in reference to this for handling the situation m8. Good luck and I hope I've answered your questions.

RanY2J

JasonBaxter said:

I just have a quick question on the direction that I should go.

I don’t have the PC in front of me so I just need some quick advice.   My daughter’s boyfriend received a NEW acer laptop from his dad as a Christmas present as it is supposed to be used for college this coming fall. (Purchased at Walmart CANADA)   He did not have any need to open it right away and told me (I am a certified tech) that one day he wanted my help to set up this laptop.   I said that he could do it on his own and he just would need to follow the prompts at startup and it will auto configure.  

So yesterday (3 month after purchase) he called and said that he got no prompts and it came up with a logon name Joanne and the windows is all in French.   Walmart seems to have sold him a returned laptop with personal data on it.  I rather avoid going back to Walmart and try to explain why it was not turned on for 4 months or how the data on this machine could be a privacy issue etc. 

I was planning on running the recovery tool – not sure what the key sequence is yet – but will this solve the language issue?   will it prompt me to choose a language during recovery.   I just want to get it back to factory default with windows in English and get it all sorted.   I know most would go to fight walmart but its not my fight to fight and I rather just resolve this issue for him.

Hello Jason,

Good day to you. Yes! When you install a new OS from the recovery disk, it will be considered as a fresh OS installation and you will get an option to format the partition. Alongside that, the installation will ask you for the language, so choose English and your problem will be all over.

The original problem might be a bit more serious. In this regard, I would say do let them know about the used computer situation if possible. At least ask him to send an email in reference to this for handling the situation m8. Good luck and I hope I've answered your questions.