Microsoft 'Investigating' Black Screen of Death

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A new sort of BSOD.

Last month, a particularly touchy change that Microsoft made in its latest Windows patches could cause a "Black Screen of Death."

Apparently, patches that affect Windows 7, Vista and XP made changes to the Access Control List that have caused installed applications to cough up the Black Screen of Death.

Security firm Prevx actually reported the problem here in this blog, and even released a free patch of its own to help take care of it. Of course, the Prevx fix isn't the official one so understandably many users are looking to Microsoft for the real deal. Sadly, it seems that Redmond is still working on it.

"Microsoft is investigating reports that its latest release of security updates is resulting in system issues for some customers," a company representative said via email to TechFlash. "Once we complete our investigation, we will provide detailed guidance on how to prevent or address these issues."

Stay tuned for word on Microsoft's resolution.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • BoxBabaX
    Crap, more ammunition for the Apple sheep! hopefully this is resolved quickly and efficiently, Windows 7 is doing so well too.
    Reply
  • touchdowntexas13
    been running Windows 7 for almost a year now. i haven't encountered a BlackSOD or anything like it yet (fingers crossed)
    Reply
  • amnotanoobie
    The good thing with Microsoft is that they acknowledge and always try to resolve any problem with Windows. Also, some may say that Microsoft is too slow, but this is the price of having a majority share of the OS market and taking into account the multitude of hardware and software configurations.

    They made a mistake the first time around, it would be a shame to do two mistakes in a row.
    Reply
  • icepick314
    well...people ARE tired of BLUE-SOD...
    Reply
  • rooket
    Just more anti-windows propaganda from stupid Mac users. Hopefully this doesn't spur more dumb mac news on TH.
    Reply
  • warmon6
    icepick314well...people ARE tired of BLUE-SOD...:lol:
    Reply
  • h0llow
    wow.. that's funny. i had a client that had the black screen of death and I couldn't figure out what the computer was doing. It would show the Windows XP logo with the blue progress bar then turn black. Then it would cease to work from there.. Then I had to ghost it back just like I formatted it..
    Reply
  • misterk_66
    I can attest to this error. My system borked after installing that update, so I had to restore my system drive. Oddly, the error didn't reappear the next go around. I have never had that with a Windows update before, so I thought it might have had some other cause which I couldn't determine from my logs. I guess I wasn't crazy after all! (well...maybe a little crazy...)
    Reply
  • Boxa786
    This just in, Latest Apple ad:

    Im a PC, I have the latest and greatest MS OS, I dont suffer from the blue screen of death.

    Im a MAC, What about the BLACK screen of death?

    PC: ..... Dont know what your talking about...
    Reply
  • bourgeoisdude
    Microsoft has already denied the updates were to blame: http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft-denies-latest-Black-Screen-of-Death-claims/1259688849
    Reply