Help for Newbie.. HTC Hero (UK Vodafone)

[Guest cheezy_wotsit]

I bought a HTC Hero for my girlfriend to replace a hero that she lost, it was an Unlocked one and came without an SD card, Since putting her SIM card in the phone works OK, but it keeps coming up with an automatic update message.

If we click on 'update' it goes off and comes back with some messages along the lines of:

Build : RA-hero-v1.5

Finding update package …

Opening update package …

Verifying update package …

E:No signature (660 files)

E:Verification failed

Installation aborted.

and then takes me to a android stystem recovery screen, with various options, reboot device etc

I have no idea what to do with it, or what it means, i've been searching for stuff and keep reading about rooting & roms etc but i really dont know what that all means and really dont want to mess the phone up. I currently only have a really old PC at home which doesnt have USB 2.0 so when i plug the phone in to use HTC Sync it doesnt find the phone.

Do i need to get hold of a different SD card with the correct data on it? I have an old 512Mb Micro SD card from an old phone that I can put in if that helps.

From what i can understand my phone is rooted (to unlock it) so should i copy a rom from somewhere onto the SD card i have, then put it into the phone and run it..

I've tried reading loads of stuff on the net but its all a bit over my head, and i can never decide whether the instructions given are to be carried out on the phone, or through a PC, Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks