Sage, he took it to the people who built it. They said it was a software problem and did a go-back, which he couldn't find a way to do from blue-screen.

Malcolm, we've had a look in the BIOS, but nothing pokes your eye out. Pretty cryptic annotations, and not much enabled.

Sorcha, when they work, they work well. When they don't..... I used to be able to fix anything on a car, but not now.

Gargoyle, we do on my computer, we do stock candles, and he isn't a child. The reason he gave up trying is that he had a weekend's worth of university stuff that he hadn't saved elsewhere. Some people learn slowly. He's quite capable and ready to format a HD and equipped to do it with Seagate Tools. Just not then.

John, he is signed up and it updates when he's on the web. C.A. VKiller updates automatically ditto. The machine is about a year old, but not an upmarket model, and was assembled by a small firm of suppliers. It does have a switch on the power unit. The makers technician said it was probably the 'phone that triggered it, and he was right, I checked, 'phone in, 'phone out, internet out. But as I implied to Malcolm, the BIOS options are just acronyms. He'll take on the other suggestions when he reads them. They are printed out.
Thank you all.