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Windows 7 has definite backlight problems (“Black Screen of Death”)

There is definitely a problem in Windows 7 RTM with the “Black Screen of Death” despite MS propaganda stating otherwise.  This one has nothing to do with 3rd party antivirus software.

The particular problem I am having and see lots of reports on forums is that the backlight is not turning on after an LCD DPMS standby.  What’s particularly bad is that some people are blaming their hardware and buying new inverters for their displays.  My problematic system dual boots Arch Linux and no amount of LCD power on/off sequences will trigger this in Arch.

I suspect though cannot easily prove that the symptoms came after recent “security patches”.  No MS, I don’t have any virus scanners installed so blaming others isn’t going to cut it.  It has gotten particularly bad in my case after the most recent Patch Tuesday.

I can trigger it readily with my LCDoff utility, though it will also happen organically with Windows’ automatic power management.

The question is, to whom or how do I report this?  I don’t want to be told condescending things by a support drone.  With FOSS, I have clear and easy communications with developers.  I’m not aware of an easy way to get that level of interaction from MS.

So, Microsoft, I invite YOU to contact ME if you want to take care of this bug on an easy to reproduce testcase.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Computing, Hardware, Windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Windows 7 has definite backlight problems (“Black Screen of Death”)”

  1. Scorp Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 1:26 am

    What you say is the exactly reason that prove Microsoft should move ahead and embrace FOSS know-how. Or start doing something else.

  2. exiquio Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    Good to see another Arch Linux user reading WRH! I run 7 in a vm on my Arch Linux laptop. I haven’t had many problems with it. My girlfriends usb mass storage fails miserably though. Other than that I can’t complain as much as I would like to.

  3. RoHa Says:
    December 12th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    Why can’t people spell “definitely”?

    Finite. Infinite. Definite.

  4. Bill Gates Says:
    December 13th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    hey its me, Bill, Im here as you requested. Have you tried switching back to Windows XP to fix the problem?

  5. Alex Says:
    January 7th, 2010 at 8:27 pm

    I’m having the same problem, also a T42. Is there a solution to this? Will there be a patch for it next Tues?

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