Vista-Black Screen at Startup

Son's laptop, a little Acer S570Z, running Vista. Ever since a Windows update at 1 a.m. this morning. (Coincidence? who knows?) We power on, Acer logo, Then MS Corporation loading bar, then the screen is black. I tried pressing F8 after powering on, it takes me to that screen where you go to Advanced Boot Options. We've tried Repair Your Computer. Got loading bar again, then System Recovery options. There we tried Startup Repair (sat 2 hours, did nothing). System Restore (tried several points, nothing happened).

Last Known Good Configuration took us to black screen.

Any help appreciated. MS support says it's a Acer's problem. I haven't reached Acer yet. Not sure what to say when I do!