Blank (black) Screen with cursor

For what it's worth, I've experienced the exact same issue after installing Snow Leopard. I hadn't connected it to Download Helper, but come to think of it, it was downloading a video at the time of the black screens.

Personally, I don't see how it is a QuickTime issue, since no videos were playing at the time (just an .flv file downloading).

I also noted that my hot corner for Spaces (cmd+upper right corner) had no effect when I was stuck in the black screen....

Turning off screen saver does not help. Disabling download helper in Firefox does not help (I read that it might.) I have nothing called "proximity." This problem is not solved.

I have this issue as well, both when using DownloadHelper and when downloading an FLV via the terminal with cURL.

It only happens for me when the folder the FLV is being downloaded into is open in the Finder, leading me to believe that QTKitServer is crashing when trying to generate an icon preview of the video. Perhaps something to do with FLV files having difficulty being viewed in QuickTime while they're incomplete.

I set a hot corner to activate a screensaver, and when the black screen appears I just toggle the screensaver on and then off again and it clears the black screen.

It just happened to me too while just moving files from an external drive to another...

This just happened to me too, with DownloadHelper. It was because I was downloading the FLV to the Desktop. I set it to download to a different folder instead, and made sure that folder wasn't open in the Finder — presto.
Not a perfect solution — wish I could have the files downloaded to the Desktop instead — but man, am I glad there's nothing wrong with my machine or with Snow Leopard..

I have had the same problem, but I find using hot corners to briefly turn on the screensaver brings my screen back. No need to reboot.

I am thinking it is related another new issue, where preview doesn't open downloaded objects, as a group, only individually, and those already addressed, some sort of file verification requirement

Message was edited by: dada base

instead of setting up a hot corner you can use this hot key for when your screen goes blank/black:

control option+command8

(tap 8 twice)

I just had this happen to me. I have a brand new MBP 13" and I was downloading about 12 FLVs directly in FireFox. No Downloadhelper or anything else used, the FLVs being downloaded directly off of the site as it offers the option to save them. The screen goes blank with just the pointer visible if I touch the trackpad.

I had the Downloads folder open and incidentally it is where the files were being downloaded to. I tried to open FireFox a few times after hard reset with the same results, so the last time I opened the Downloads option in FireFox and closed down half the downloads and so far it has remained stable!

Some really weird bug there that could be the fault of a number of components but I suspect FireFox is somehow either directly causing this or is a major factor.

I came to this page via Google.

This problem affects not only Firefox. I personally didn't use Firefox today, and the screen blanked today a couple of times. It must have to do something with movie files or QuickTime, because when I try to view certain .mov or .flv files in QuickTime, the screen goes blank. I can't figure out what exactly causes it, it happens like in the middle of viewing a movie file, not when I start viewing it, but only after a little while. On one occasion, I tried to revive the black screen with the hot corner trick, but then even the cursor disappeared, and the MacBook froze. To check if it's frozen, I unplugged the Cinema Display, removed power cord, and the fans kept running with the closed lid, while normally under these conditions the MacBook should go to sleep. I manually powered reboot and came here to write about it. I hope this will help Apple to fix it.

I have the same problem. I'm guessing something is still trying to download through FF/downloadhelper, because everytime i start firefox now, the screen turns black with the cursor active as described above. How do i clear or delete downloadhelper without starting firefox?

Absolutely 1000% this APP!!! I tested it and narrowed it down to this amateurish POS, garbage app. Do NOT put Video DownloadHelper on Snow Leopard!!!!!!

Use the special keyboard shortcuts in Safari to get the movie url. Its more of a pain in the ***, but it won't crash your Mac!

This is NOT an Apple issue. Its DownloadHelper 4.6, etc. Your screen will go all black, you'll hear the movie playing and your cursor will work. The ONLY way to escape is a hard shut down. Do you have any idea what this does to your motherboard and OS? BAD. Bad as in NOT GOOD. Do you think your OS likes having its files and system unplugged suddenly?

These sh*t heads ought to be sued out of existance.

Ask yourself Apple, how many brand new Mac users experience this and go "hey, WT*?" "I thought Macs didn't CRASH? I'm taking this back to the store and going back to PC. It was all a lie."

Great going 'Video DownLoadHelper.'

Please, someone take these clowns to court and crush the life out of them. I wonder how many weeks or months my $5000 Mac has had lopped off by these hard restarts?

I have this issue, but I don't even use Downloadhelper. I normally happens when I'm converting .mov files to .flv for use on the web.

Message was edited by: kjtriplett