Black screen of death (ish)

[rrusso2007]

Okay so I know that this has been talked about a lot on a lot of forums, but it really pisses me off that this is happening. The 'black screen of death' that has become famous for windows 7 sort of describes the problem. Now, let me start by saying that this is more of a description of my problem than a search for a solution but if you have any solutions I would love to hear them because the current solution is not a very good one.

I will be as descriptive as possible here since so many people have so many variants of this and I have already done a lot of research into it. Also let me say this, **do not reply simply with the solutions that are online to black screen of death or to Windows Vista and Windows 7 Black Screen on Computer Unlock** because I have already seen all of those solutions(although the latter solution actually is working so far).

Okay so my computer started freezing by randomly (and quickly) going to a full black screen. It is a laptop computer and it did not come default with windows 7, it came with vista. I have had windows 7 on it (clean install not an upgrade) for over a year now and the problem started maybe 2 months ago. When the black screen happens it is usually completely random (as in not when I click a button or do a specific action at that time). The most recent time it happened while I was working in my VM. The time before I was simply typing in notepad with nothing else running. I have also had the case where it froze coming out of sleep twice. It is not the case as in black screen of death that it is when I go to log in. When it did happen coming out of sleep, my screen powered on but remained black the entire time. The other times that it happens, the screen goes black(still on though) and the HDD light is going but nothing is responsive then after a minute the fans kick up and start going at max. I tried leaving the computer for an extended amount of time to see if it would come back but it remained black with fans on full. I do not believe that the system is responsive behind the black screen as when it happened in notepad it was a already existing file(so ctrl + s should not have required any additional action) and I tried to press ctrl + s to save but it did not save. When it happens though, my keyboard is still active. I can use Fn to turn wireless off and on and num lock as well. After doing more research, I found someone elses post that mentioned the closest case to mine yet, even noting that his wireless adapter sometimes wouldn't be working when the computer started (which seemed unrelated but i have had that happen lately but more later than when the black screen started). He also mentioned it happened around the time of installing the microsoft c++ dist but did not confirm if this had an effect by uninstalling/reinstalling. I have that installed as well although the timing is unrelated. In the end he found that it was the desktop window manager session manager that was the problem and that disabling this made it stop. This is also working for me so far as well. After researching more on that being the problem i found the microsoft help article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2431700 which has the following preconditions:

1. A Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer is running the “Aero” graphics mode.

2. The Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer is subject to additional security restrictions and security software, such as might be the case in the enterprise, or with mandated security settings and software such as DISA or DoD requirements.

3. The computer is locked and left undisturbed long enough for the screen to go black, which is 20 minutes with the default power policy of “Balanced”.

4. A person unlocks the computer by entering their user credentials.

only condition 1 applies to me. The circumstances that they say make it happen have NEVER caused this to happen. it is always just random.

If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them although this seems to be an unsolved issue.

Also, I know that stopping that service is effectively eliminating the problem, but am I the only one that sees this as a MAJOR issue? the entire windows 7 campaign is based on windows aero and yet I am stuck here with either a computer that crashes more than windows ME (didn't think that was possible) if I use aero and if I don't then I lose half the reason i like windows 7.

[bludgard]

I'm sure there is a simple and obvious fix for you problem.Usually is.Just one "_" can throw an OS for a loop.

Is the machine up to par as far as hardware requirements for your chosen OS?

If it were me I would cut my losses,back up what I could and reinstall on a zeroed out disk.

Event logs do not offer a clue?

The Tarot cards are telling me that it is a hardware issue and most probably in the graphics memory dept.

[Alan2273]

How old is the laptop, because from what you describe about the fan going to max, it might be that it needs cleaning out to get rid of the dust.

[rrusso2007]

Event logs show nothing except for that windows had an unexpected shutdown (me pressing the power button) and that windows started without shutting down correctly.

As for the hardware, its all up to spec I have an alienware area51 m7950 with all compatable hardware. As for cleaning it out, I know that that is a problem and I clean regularly including reseating all of the heat syncs with arctic silver. The laptop is 3 years old (bought it right before windows 7) and its all stock hardware except that one of my graphics cards blew out but it was the child so that has never been an issue and the timing of that was way before this.