same thing happened to me. I checked all connections but knew it was not that...just did to be sure. Then I forced the screen by entering my sign in even though I could not see what I was typing...the screen was black. The only way I could get the screen to reappear so I could see if I was actually up and running was to click off the monitor then on again...it stayed open just long enough for me to view that my icons were showing on my desktop...then it shut back down to black and I had to keep doing the same thing while I endeavored to QUICKLY get to programs...and then to windows update....as soon as I click on windows update (after opening and shutting down the monitor for 1 second at a time.. it held and let me do the update. When I got to the update, I clicked on the KB2607712 and redownloaded it manually. Sure enough....my black screen went away. Then I went to windows utility log and found that the KB2607712 earlier download had failed.

So to make this short and sweet.....it could have been a miserable 25 things...but in the end it was a failed download of KB2607712 on Tuesday September 6, 2011.

Even my son who is almost a pro with this stuff didn't believe it could have been caused by the innocuous KB2607712 update....but it was. And I sent him the logs to show just what happened.

Try to shut down and reopen your monitor (it only gives you a bare second). If you can get a glimpse of the sign in box, then even if you can see it, sign in. Then do the turn off monitor (not computer, just monitor) quickly again and see if you can see your desktop....it will shut down again...turn off and on the monitor again and quickly open programs, then update microsoft...and redownload that kb2607712.