“Black Screen of Death” reports on Windows 7 -------- not true

The press and the internet have been a-buzz with reports of November’s “Patch Tuesday” updates causing the “Black Screen of Death” (as opposed to the “Blue Screen Of Death”) on Windows 7 computers. This is when you boot the computer and are left with a black screen. No cursor, no desktop, no nothing.

A company called PrevX reported this and claimed that it was happening on Windows 7 machines after they applied last November’s patches. According to them, it had the potential of affecting “millions” of computers.

Well, folks, it turned out to simply not be true. After Microsoft and other security folks looked into it, they concluded that the patches simply could not have caused it.

Tony Bradley from PC World reported this on Network World
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/120209-black-screen-of-death-a.html?page=2

PrevX has issued a retraction and apology for the misinformation.
http://www.prevx.com/blog/141/Windows-Black-Screen-Root-Cause.html

This is a great example of how anxious folks out there are to find fatal flaws, especially in W7. Keep this in mind the next time someone says “I heard that……”