My son has a brand new laptop.

I set it all up nicely for him with AVG, Zonealarm firewall, spy stuff too etc.

Off he went to uni. I visited him last week and he wanted to show me stuff on his computer. When the zonealarm popup came on he just clicked on allow. I was gobsmacked. I tried to explain to him not to do this. He's been away about a month and uses his computer for all the typical teen stuff.

Anyway, tonight I got a text. My computer won't let me log on. I called him. Apparently he gets to the log on screen and logs on. But then he just gets a black screen.

I thought it sounded pretty horrible. I told him to log on in safe mode and see if it says at the bottom of the screen log on at the last successful log in (or something like that).

I said if that doesn't work he'll have to re format his hard drive. Is this correct advice? I'm almost as computer illiterate as him.

It depends on what he gets in Safe Mode - if he can get in, the first thing to try would be updated video drivers. Also, have him look in the Event Viewer (Start...type in "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter) - check in Windows Logs, then in Application and System.

System Restore, a non-destructive option, is often the easiest fix.

In Vista, if you don't see it on the start menu just "search" for it, or run rstrui.exe

It is also available in Vista from the F8 boot menu through the "repair" option which is normally there.

Thanks a lot. I've forwarded your advice to him.

I forgot to mention that he said that the computer was working slowly the last time that he used it.

Let us know!

Oh well.

We seem to have sorted the problem out.

The problem appeared to have been caused by the Windows update that had just occured.

My son performed a system repair and so far all is well.

Thanks once again for all of your support.