KSOD

KSOD

Black Screen of Death. A completely black screen on Windows Vista where nothing is shown other than the cursor, which can still be moved.

This is known as KSOD to distinguish it from BSOD (an already well known acronym); the K comes from the last letter in the word blacK.

The cause or purpose of a KSOD in Windows Vista is very much a area of speculation. It has been speculated that it is part of an anti-piracy mechanism (that may sometimes go awry) build into Windows Vista (pre SP1). A KSOD when installing Windows can be caused by an incorrect driver for the disk subsystem (such as if using the default driver on the Windows install CD and not the driver supplied with the PC on a separate drivers disk).

For more information see:

• http://www.betanews.com/article/Tracking-Vistas-elusive-Black-Screen-of-Death/1245254312/2 - Tracking Vista's elusive Black Screen of Death.
• http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldron/archive/2008/12/30/vista-mysterious-black-screen-of-death-solution.aspx - Vista - Mysterious Black Screen of Death Solution.
• http://everything.explained.at/Black_Screen_of_Death/ - Black Screen of Death explained.
• www.logicitc.com/blog/?p=102 - How to fix the Vista KSOD.