[prob. related to the
Floating Head of Death in a famous "Far Side" cartoon.] A
failure mode of Microsloth Windows. On an attempt to launch a
DOS box, a networked Windows system not uncommonly blanks the
screen and locks up the PC so hard that it requires a cold
boot to recover. This unhappy phenomenon is known as The Black
Screen of Death. See also Blue Screen of Death, which has
become rather more common.