‘Black screen of death’ for some Windows users

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34223754/ns/technology_and_science-security/

By Suzanne Choney
msnbc.com
updated 39 minutes ago

A Microsoft security update for its new computer operating system, Windows 7 as well as older versions of Windows, is resulting in some users getting a "black screen of death" on their machines, according to reports. The problem may be tied to security updates recently released by the software maker.

"Microsoft is investigating reports that its latest release of security updates is resulting in system issues for some customers," the company said in a statement. "Once we complete our investigation, we will provide detailed guidance on how to prevent or address these issues." (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Windows users are familiar with the "blue screen of death," when their computers essentially shutdown because of an operating system problem. The new "black screen of death" appears to occur when the computer is first turned on, then shuts down.

British security firm Prevx writes about the problem on its blog, and suggests following this procedure:

1) Restart your PC
2) Log on and wait for the black screen to appear
3) Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the Internet (black screen does not appear to affect this)
4) Press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys simultaneously
5) When prompted, Click Start Task Manager
6) In Task Manager Click on the Application Tab
7) Next Click New Task
8) Now enter the command:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "http://info.prevx.com/download.asp?GRAB=BLACKSCREENFIX"
9) Click OK and your (Web) browser should start up and begin the download process
10) When prompted for the download Click run, the black screen fix program will download and run to automatically fix the issue.
11) Now restart your PC and the black screen problem will hopefully be gone.

"There appears to be many causes of the black screen issue," wrote Dave Kennerley of Prevx Support on the company's blog. "The symptoms are very distinctive and troublesome. After starting your Windows 7, Vista, XP, NT, W2K, W2K3 or W2K8 PC or server the system appears normal.

"However, after logging on there is no desktop, task bar, system tray or side bar. Instead you are left with a totally black screen and a single My Computer Explorer window. Even this window might be minimized making it hard to see."