Unable to download apps in the android market?

[Kay]

I recently lost my iPhone and acquired my boyfriend's old Samsung Galaxy Q as a replacement. The first app I attempted to download was Instagram, which worked only after three or four tries. Every app I have tried to download since Instagram just fails, regardless of whether or not I am on a WiFi network or using my cellular data. It starts off like it's about to download, giving me a message that says "Your item will be downloaded," after about a minute, I end up with an error message stating "Download was unsuccessful, please try again." I have never had an android phone before, and my boyfriend did not have a data plan when he owned the phone and used it only for calls and texts, so I am totally clueless as of what to do to get the android market to work. I looked up my problem online and I keep getting the same answer: go into settings and apps, and clear your cache and your data and then open the market place again. This DOES NOT work for me. The data is at 0 to begin with and I have cleared my cache already. Why can't I download any apps? How can I make it so that I will be able to download apps?
After some additional research, I've noticed that when the suggested solution of clearing the data and cache doesn't work, there are absolutely no other suggestions of how to fix the problem. It appears that hundreds of other people have had this problem without a solution. HELP ME!!!!

[CloseCoder]

This has happened to me before. If you can, you should wipe the whole phone and start fresh again. That should clear up problems it had before. I dont know what version your Android phone is running but if its in 2.3, resetting is in Settings, Privacy, Factory Data Reset. It may or may not work but its up to you if you want to reset it. After its done, ask your boyfriend to enter his gmail to sign in to download apps and see if it works. If not, then you need to update the phone if not, root the phone, install Clockworkmod recovery and install Cyanogenmod but thats if the phone really doesnt download apps.