I've just put a new e-mail account and Dial-Up Connection on my friends computer. It used to work fine when on the internet, but now, if he connects to the net the computer crashes and if he goes into Outlook Express it hangs. When he goes to shutdown he gets the blue screen of death. Any ideas?

Sounds to me that he got the wrong modem driver or need to be updated ! I would try to download the newest drivers (make sure its the right one ), then removing the modem from the SYSTEM ( Control Panel ),reboot the machine & install the new drivers... should solve your prob.. Good luck ! PS: Most basic modem driver fits on a 1.44mo disk.

I don't get how the modem driver could be at fault. His system used to work fine until I put this new account on it. I just don't get it, hoe can putting a new account on it cause it to start crashing?

Just clear up a point. You said you established a new e-mail account AND dial-up connection. This implies you went to a different ISP or established an entirely new internet account with the same ISP he was using before. So, please tell us EXACTLY (step-by-step) what you did. Also, did the "Connection" work when you installed it and later failed? It's also possible he has picked up a spyware program. Give spybot a try and do a full system virus scan. Regards - Ray

Ray, you've guessed it. He used to use an ISP called Strayduck, they have now been taken over by Tiscali. So I set him up with a new Pay-As-You-Go Tiscali account. Yes the connection did work at first and then failed later. It seems very strange that just by setting up a new account it's screwed everything up. Any more ideas?

Have you done a spyware scan? I presume you cannot download directly to his PC, but you can download to yours. Go to http://spybot.safer-networking.de/ and download Spybot S&D v1.2. Hopefully you have a CD burner and can burn the spybot file (3.5mb) to a CD and install it in his PC. You wont be able to run an update before scanning, but I don't know a way around that until you can get a working internet connection (unless you have someway to network your PC to his). You also might try doing a repair on IE. Go to the Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs, select IE and click "Remove" Then in the new window, select "Repair" and OK. Reboot after completing the process. This will rebuild IE and ensure the fault does not lie within the browser program. BTW... What version of IE is he running? Your frinds PC doesn't happen to have another browser on it? Perhaps Netscape? If so you might give that a shot. Don't forget the virus scan. HTH - Ray

Thanks, I'll try the Spybot and then the repair. I'll let you all know what happens