Windows 11 shows the “black screen of death”. The cause is already known

Blue Screen of Death is a colloquial term for a message that occurs in Windows in the event of a serious system failure. Then the computer does not respond to commands issued using the keyboard and usually the only solution to the situation is to restart the unit.

The blue screen of death was present even in all previous versions of Windows, including the still popular Windows 10. It was often seen by Windows XP and Vista users. In the newest edition of “Windows” marked with the number 11, the blue color has unexpectedly disappeared, giving way to the so-called Black Screen of Death, which was encountered more than two decades ago, e.g. in the graphical interface (not the operating system) of Windows 3.0 from 1990.

The Black Screen of Death scares Windows 11 users

Now users of the newly released (debuted on October 5 this year) Windows 11 have the first opportunity to see what the death screen looks like in the black color version. Of course, we write this half jokingly, because the black screen of death in Windows 11 has become a big problem. The message started popping up on some users’ computers in recent weeks.

Fortunately, Microsoft has already located the cause of the problem. It turned out by Intel Smart Sound Technology drivers which are not compatible with Windows 11 version 21H2. Microsoft has already taken some steps and temporarily blocked users at risk from upgrading to Windows 11 from the previous operating system.

Microsoft explains that on computers at risk of the problem, we can find a file in the Task Manager called IntcAudioBus.sys, version 10.29.0.5152, 10.30.0.5152 or earlier. The problem is expected to go away as soon as the next version of the driver is released without causing the error. Microsoft promises that it will restore the ability to upgrade to Windows 11 for all users.

The black screen of death will be blue again

Interestingly, this information coincided with media reports that soon the black screen of death in Windows 11 … will change its color. Quite unexpectedly, in one of the early preview versions of Windows 11 (Build 22000.346), a new screen of death was found to be blue again.

Of course, it is not certain that the black screen of death will be replaced with blue also in the finished version of Windows 11, once it reaches end users. Microsoft, however, most likely is not experimenting without a reason, so the change is very possible. Why would the Windows manufacturer decide to go back to blue? We don’t know. Apparently someone said that so many years of tradition should not be wasted …