Microsoft investigates Windows 7 'screen of death'

BBC ^ | 12/1/09

[FromLori]

Microsoft has confirmed that it is investigating a problem described as the "black screen of death", which affects its latest operating system.

The error means that users of Windows 7 see a totally black screen after logging on to the system.

The firm said it was looking into reports that suggest its latest security update, issued on 10 November, was the cause the problem.

Reports suggest the flaw also affects Vista, XP and other systems.

Software firm Prevx, which has issued a fix for the problem, says "millions" of people may be affected. "Users have resorted to reloading Windows as a last ditch effort to fix the problem," the firm's David Kennerley wrote in a blog post.

"We hope we can help a good many of you avoid the need to reload." Unknown problem

[TomGuy]

“Windows7 won’t have the problems VISTA had. Trust me.”

[snicker]

[colorado tanker]

I like it!

[Red Badger]

In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream...............

[Hoffer Rand]

I had a cube mate once who used to wander off and leave her computer unsecured. We gave her a lot of warnings about not doing that. At the time, there was a screen saver that could be customized to whatever text you wanted. So, I set it to the BSOD color and typed in a countdown to completely erase the HD. 10...9...8...7...

Very satisfactory results. You could hear her panicked shrieks all over the building. Not sure she ever forgave me. But she did start logging out when she left.

[Red Badger]

You scream for ice cream?................

[D Rider]

They could do a commercial where the screen goes black, and then the Apple guy could have a flashlight.

I use MS products for work, but when a hard drive crashes, I plug it into my Apple and retrieve the information.

[ErnBatavia]

Two new machines with 7 here....no prob so far.

[waynesa98]

This error is actually caused by a change in the ACL access control list for some files and registry entries changes intended to prevent malware infections. It would appear to mainly effect anti-virus programs, and both sides in the issue are developing patches, in fact one AV provider already has a patch out.

[lucky american]

This happened to me on Wednesday. Totally black screen. I thought the monitor went bad.
Shut down the computer and rebooted. It hasn't done it again.

[dfwgator]

“Once you go black, you never come back.”

[VeniVidiVici]

Nothing about who Prevx is or what they did to the computer to cause this to happen.

Typical BS reporting.

[Red Badger]

OOOOOOHHHHH! YOU BAAAADdddddddd!!................BTW, the Florida-Florida game was great!.........We Alabammy bound!.............

[pyx]

Five things you can do to help yourself;
1.) Save your important office documents to a USB Drive. USB drives are very inexpensive.
2.) IF your PC hardware is fairly run of the mill and is less than five years old AND
3.) IF you can burn iso files onto CD's on your PC AND
4.) IF your PC uses DHCP to obtain your computer's IP address AND
5.) IF you are able to set your PC's BIOS to *first ATTEMPT to boot from the CD AND THEN to boot from the hard disk.

I would suggest you go to the Linux Ubuntu Website and READ the ALL of information on that one web page and then download the correct ISO file for your PC. There is a CD boot option to TRY Ubuntu from the CDROM BEFORE you install. Then burn this file to a blank CD and label the CD disk.

It is your 'Connect to the Internet' insurance that you can boot automatically from your CD, connect to the internet and ensure you have a web browser that works and Office software that also works so you can access your documents on your USB drive.

*This BIOS setting will boot from the hard disk normally if there is NO CD Disk in the CD ROM drive.

[Rightly Biased]

Blue Bell too good call

[CaliforniaCon]

On the first day Win 7 was sold, I purchased a new laptop (HP) and thus far other than losing wireless connection a few times, it’s been OK.

Never had Vista but after talking to many techies, including some engineers, everyone says Windows 7 is just Vista but all cleaned up. I contacted HP about some issues and they said don’t believe there are no glitches with Win 7; nothing is perfect.

I believe that — overall though, this is a vast improvement over seeing the dreaded blue screen once a week on my ancient Win XP Home (laptop). Somehow I managed to keep that thing working for 7 years though — not a bad record in an industry during which two years means you have an ‘old’ PC.

I have seen the ‘black screen’ when signing on but it’s momentary and I never thought much about it and have had to take no steps to correct anything. I gather this is different from the ‘dreaded black screen’ people are discussing here?

[Hoodat]

[Hoodat]

AAAACCCCHHHH! The BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!..........

[discostu]

There was actually a BSOD screen saver available, stuck that on a couple of people’s computers, pretty funny stuff.

[ShadowAce]

[ChildOfThe60s]

Got a new ASUS a few weeks ago with Windows 7 on it. So far it seems pretty stable.

Usual stupid interface changes MS makes so you have to learn all over how to do basic stuff.

First thing I do with Windows is turn OFF automatic updates. I don’t do patches and updates until everyone else has been using them for at least 6 months. And if my machine is running well, I don’t do them.