I immediately uninstalled the new updates, but this didn´t fix the issue, I also had to reinstall the graphics driver. At first I thought that there was some software conflict as I am using modded Catalyst Control Center (the driver for my card is, however, the one available through windows update), so I disabled CCC and rebooted, but it didn´t change anything. As already said, the problem was solved only after uninstalling the new updates and reinstalling the graphics driver. The ThinkPad and Intel logos are now showing up on the boot screen.
After the issue was fixed, I was curious as to which update caused the problem, so I started playing with the updates by the include/exclude principle, it took a few reboots, but it now really seems like the problem was caused by Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Update for Windows 7 x86 (KB982526). I currently have the other 4 updates installed, so far no problems, but as soon as I install the .NET 3.5 SP1 update, the same issue appears either after rebooting the machine or after resuming from sleep. Also, I found out, that a few cycles sleep-resume-sleep bring back the native resolution of my screen.
I found all this very odd, in particular I have never expected that windows updates may have any effect on the boot behavior of a machine, e.g. having black screen at boot instead of the ThinkPad and Intel logos (improper shutdown signal?), so be warned!
Cheers,
Marin





