I’m currently writing this on my laptop as I am updating my main machine with Windows updates after a rebuild. I had to do this after a bizarre issue occurred involving my Antivirus/Firewall software. I found that if I disabled it (a requirement for streaming to Media Center on the Xbox) my internet performance went out the window. I tried a few different things but none of them worked.

Anyway, after rebuilding my PC I did what you normally do: grab the latest updates and the graphics card drivers. This went according to plan, but after rebooting I was presented with a black screen, yup, nothing but black. The monitor was definitely on because I got no signal errors, Windows had loaded because I could hear the startup chime. WTF was going on? I loaded the thing into Safe Mode and checked out Google only to be presented with thousands of results of the black screen of death, all of which related to a Windows update issue that popped up in November 2009.

I tried several different things, I uninstalled the video drivers, tried the previous version, nope. Uninstalled the updates, nope. And then it suddenly hit me – disconnect the HDMI connection from my graphics card. I rebooted the machine, did it work? YES!

… the bloody thing had only gone and selected my TV as the default monitor…

And to think I was throwing my TV controller up in the air and catching it while thinking about the potential driver issue. It’s official, this user is a tool.