A Compaq notebook appears to have put its owner in contact with long-dead Nirvana star Kurt Cobain.

According to Gemma Franks, a 24-year-old... ahem... bar manager from Essex, Kurt manifested himself on her screen and demanded she "give us a kiss, love". The spectral singer also pleaded for Franks' help.

Cobain committed suicide in 1994. Franks told UK newswire Annanova that she'd been looking at a Web site that publishes obituaries to deceased rockers.

Suspecting a virus, Franks had her hard drive checked, but no infection was found. And in any case, she claimed Cobain only materialised after she had turned the machine, a Presario, off.

At the end of her tether - "I'm not a spiritual person... I had to do something," she said - Franks had her computer exorcised.

Bell, book and candle appear to have done the trick - Cobain's shade has yet to re-appear on the notebook. That said, neither has Franks' software - since the exorcism, the Presario refuses to boot up, though that might well be down to the liberal quantities of holy water thrown over it.

The Big Q already has rock star support in the shape of ex-Police man Sting. It's not known whether the tantric sex fan and saviour of the rainforest has welcomed the reappearance of his fellow musician on his favourite brand of PC.

"Where do bad folks go when they die," warbled Kurt during a rendition of Lake of Fire at an MTV Unplugged gig. If Franks' supernatural experience is anything to go by, we guess we now know... ®