Beginner in a big world

Recently a Prusa I3 Mendel was given by a friend to assemble and test for a lot of $$
The issue began when I actually assembled the printer. My knowledge on the 3D printing world contained willy nilly nothing.
I'm a drop dead skunk right now because I have finally got the printer working but suddenly am bought into a world of programs.
I have spent 7 hours trying to install a darn driver before learning about different COMS and Arduino.
I use Pronterface and it's been working out except for the part where I haven't printed anything... When I start a print, the printer always locates itself aroound 20-25mm above the heat bed. And not to mention before it starts a print, it creeps itself off the hotbed and sits there for a bit before it locates itself towards 20-25mm above the middle of the hotbed and tries to squeeze out filament and do its job.
Hope I didn't waste your time with my nonsense and I'm sorry If I'm not the best tech expert but these issues are hurting my brain.

Well, shit happens if people offer help on topics they have no clue about.
Do a full hardware calibration of the motor stepping and go from there.
Enstops should be checked too as well as homing settings.
Make sure you have not defined a z-offset.

Thanks it can make sense to me when it's put in front of me.
Just to ask, do you have any idea on an offical reprap learning guide that isn't Chinese... Or just a beggingers guide into learning firmware, software and things like that.

Not really, there are websites with calculators for the basic settings that configure the Firmware for you but not really needed.
Marlin is pretty well documented and most if not all settings you need are in the configuration.h file.
And with activated EEPROM support you can change the vital settings from within pronterface before applying them to a firmware for flashing.
The only tool you really need is some calipers to check the steps for the motors.

Hi Noxaj

It is a bit daunting to get started. Here are some resources for you:

The Wiki has a Reference section, which has Calibration. I recommend Triffid Hunter's guide.

The Tutorials section has Slic3r Tutorials.

The Wiki has quite a bit that needs to be cleaned up - that's a community effort.

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My printer: Raptosaur - Large Format Delta - [www.paulwanamaker.wordpress.com]
Can you answer questions about Calibration, Printing issues, Mechanics? Write it up and improve the Wiki!