Hi, Skype no longer working on Acer Aspire One AOD255E

Hi there,

I have a friend with an Acer Aspire One AOD255E.

It's got an Intel Atom CPU N455@ 1.66 GHz

1.0 GB RAM

32-bit edition of Windows 7 Starter

Skype was working on the machine.  It stated that there was an update available, so the user updated, but ever since the update, Skype fails to start.

The Skype version before the update was 6.05.  The updated Skype version was to 6.11.

There had been some Windows Updates, and Norton 360 had been installed since the 6.05 -> 6.11 update.

What I tried:

• Uninstalled Skype 6.11
• Reinstalled Skype 6.11
• Uninstalled Skype 6.11
• Installed Skype 6.05
• Close down Norton 360 anti virus and firewall
• Did a system restore before the Windows Updates
• Run in Safe Mode

None of these worked.  I was not able to uninstall Norton 360 as the user did not know the username and password since her brother had added her to the account and not given her the details.

What happens is that when you start skype, Windows 7 provides the widgets, so you get the title bar, minimise, maximise and close buttons and side bar.  However, the screen remains white and the mouse pointer just flickers.  It never ever opens and does not even give the classic Skype blue background with the revolving "busy" icon.

As I say, this used to work on this hardware, so does anyone have any ideas other than uninstalling Norton 360 which seems the obvious last culprit?

Thanks in advance.