A friend has asked me to look at his win 7 laptop that will not boot - although my limited knowledge is on winXP, not 7. I have discovered that the machine does boot but very slowly. I have updated all the drivers on the machine, completed all the ms updates and checked spyware/virus with up to date spybot and avg apps. Googling I have discovered the term Black Screen of Death but not sure if I have this. I have booted to Safe Mode and now boot/run in low graphics mode - these are consistent/average timings I get: Power up and bios boot I get a Win 7 logo in middle of screen for @ 20secs. Logo disappears, I get blank screen with just mouse cursor showing for @ 2min 45 secs. A log on screen appears asking me for the password. I enter the password and hit Return and it takes about 30 secs to get to the Desktop. My friend is not computer literate and has just left the PC as it came out the box and just leaves ms updates auto running. I am hoping for a steer what to look for - the 2.5 mins with a blank screen before the log on screen is not right. Is this a nasty in the machine somewhere or some legit config setting/apps that are not set up correctly? Any help appreciated.