Oh now THAT's a good one. If I drank coffee I'd certainly need a new keyboard now.

If Microsoft had made a common, consistent interface across all its products and their iterations, I think we'd know.

This sounds like a new and effective feature to dependably prevent further malware infections...just disable the computer, problem solved.

Didn’t you people know that is part of the windows experience? And - kinus -your an old school user in deed; dam I remember the BSOD of Win95 appearing for no reason at all (on a fresh install)!

Later Volistas

I think this sounds like a really simple problem I've seen happen on lots of Windows installations ever since XP. It's got nothing to do with the computer locking up.

It is explorer not starting up at startup. So you can start it yourself via opening New Task in the Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc), typing "explorer" and clicking OK.

I've had this problem on every computer I own. Rattle the mouse; pound the keyboard ... nothing, just nothing.

I developed a very effective workaround though awaiting a real fix.

I had to discipline myself to press the power button first, then rattle the mouse and pound the keyboard. So far the problem has yet to return.

Prevx now says it's not Microsofts fault.

"...we have been able to exonerate these patches from being a contributory factor".

"We apologize to Microsoft for any inconvenience our blog may have caused. "

Why don't INQ post this new Prevx blog as "news" ?

Ppl who're old enough to remember the original "blue screen of death" back in Win95/98 will recall these screens appear literally out of nowhere DURING your normal computer usage. The implication is that you'll immediately loose everything on whatever you were working on at that time, be it document, spreadsheet, or just some painfully long battle on some desolate alien planet in Total Annihilation.
Although I am yet to see this new "very dark blue screen of death", if it's what you say it is - that is, it FUCKS YOU on boot up before you get a chance to do anything useful - then it's cute and far less damaging than the original BSD. Hey, I just coined a new acronym! Ya ya Berkeley Standard Distribution called it first i kno.

Peace.

I do indeed get an obnoxious black screen it started though since last year...I was using Vista back then Win 7 now.

I have overhauled my entire system but my graphics card is the same HIS 3850 IceQ edition.

I always thought it was my graphics card.

This Black screen is triggered pretty randomly when I enable/disable my LAN adapter.

Or while just browsing.

I always thought it was my CPU overheating so I got a Aftermarket cooler then I thought it was the northbridge so I improved my internal case flow.

Regardless this problem pops out of nowhere but not everytime it's pretty random to be concerned about but when it does indeed arise it's pretty nagging.

Still I think it's the graphics card maybe my memory chips in the graphics card are overheating or it's just flat-out crapping out.

I haven't invested in a new graphics card yet. Waiting for the HD5770 to fall in price.

So when I do indeed get a new card & this problem vanished. I'll know it was all HIS's fault hehe.

Trust M$ - can't even get the color of the death-screen right.
- you'd think they'd be able to get that right by now, with all the practice they've put it! haha

Are you sure it's black? If you look very closely you might find that it's just: very very very very very very very very dark blue!

I have that when I was open the netbook and all black no response plus sometime when I run the program and later it blink into blackness with no explain. so I tend to reboot each time if it occur.

John0 what does this article have to do with Apple?

LOL... do you honestly prefer the mess that is /etc? I hope you're joking.

Regardless of whatever error MS has, a common consistent interface with defined methods, datatypes, user profiles, and security levels is better in my books than assorted text files dumped into folders, each with it's own format.

You should check out windows powershell. It's not perfect but man do I wish linux had a shell like that. Scripter/Developer heaven.

Microsucks is good at, it's producing screens of death. Choose your color.

My buddy had this same problem happen, he though he had a virus and formatted. Pretty funny actually, he was on XP.

i think it is the blue screen of death your talking about, because it turns out to be blue than black...

"It appears that most of the problems are caused by the way Windows handles registry keys."

Yet again, another reason I use Linux

This is nothing new to Apple [abused]users... Early Apple intel systems, Macbook Pro's and iMacs, specifically those with the ATI X1600 graphics chip, are plagued with premature system failures, screen anomalies and 'black screens of death'... not through an system upgrade or security update but through sheer poor product design and sub-standard manufacturing... Do a Google search on - ATI X1600 MacBook Pro screen anomalies - and read up... Once upon a time Apple Macs were thought to be quality products with a superior OS, think again!!!

and I used my 3 support calls to microsoft to resolve it. Waht did they tell me at the end of my third call? To delete my installation and reinstall fresh. Thanks! I bet they were shocked someone with such an old retail license waited until about this time last year to call in.