figuring out my problem

I have a couple of questions to ask about a computer I just recently got. Upon arrival, the heatsink/fan became detached from the cpu while it was being shipped. So one of the capacitors on the mobo was bent over a bit, so I just straightened it back out by hand.

Then I fired up the computer (it is used) and it seemed to work ok. But then while I was opening one program, windows froze up. So I restarted, and it froze again while opening the same program. Then after restarting again, it said windows couldn't load due to an error in one of the reg files.

After that I did a windows repair and it turned on again. But then it ran into freezing issues again with another program and yet another windows failure so I have to repair.

So basically I need some help tracking down this problem. Do you think it could be caused by the capacitor being bent? Or do you think it is just windows being itself and it ccould use a reinstall?

I would like to avoid reformatting at all costs. The reason I bought this computer was becaue of a lot of the software that it had, but unfortunately it came with none of the discs So if anyone has a suggestion of how to fix my freezing problems and avoid loosing all of my programs that would be great!

Anyone? I want to see if its an easy fix or else im going to have to make an insurance claim with the post office tomorrow.

It actually was a mini-atx setup. So the mobo was flat in the case and since it is pretty compact (its intended to be a carputer) there wasna lot it could mess up. I am going to file an insurance claim w/ USPS tomorrow.