Black Screen of Death Actually Caused by Malware A couple of days ago we wrote about the Black Screen of Death, a problem that caused Windows-based machines to freeze and lock out users, leaving them teary-eyed and black-screened. The issue, however, doesn’t seem to be a common one, nor is it tied to Microsoft’s security updates, as we’d previously thought. In fact, UK security company Prevx, who pointed out the issue (and actually offered a software fix), admitted that the problem is likely caused by malware and not by Microsoft’s error.