Windows 7 hit by 'black screen of death'

The error appears to occur after logging on to the affected systems, rendering the computer unresponsive, the software giant has acknowledged.

The black screen of death is a play on the ‘blue screen of death’ colloquialism used for the error screen that has plagued Windows users over the years, ‘The Daily Mail’ reported.
The company said it was investigating a disabling glitch that seems to particularly affect its latest operating system.

However, it has denied reports that its latest monthly security update has caused the serious system problems. “We have conducted a comprehensive review of the November Security Updates, the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, and the non-security updates we released through Windows Update in November,” Microsoft said in a blog posting.

“That investigation has shown that none of these updates make any changes to the permissions in the registry. Thus, we don’t believe the updates are related to the ‘black screen’ behaviour described in these reports.”

Software firm Prevx had earlier suggested that the blank screen problem was caused by Microsoft’s latest security patch. However, it retracted from its claim later.