A few additional notes (copy from closed task based on request by Ankit):

• Looks like this was introduced in rB0b626703f99f, because this crash does not happen in the previous commit to master
• Blender crashes also when selecting any of the items under "New Files" like for example "General" or "Video Editing" in the Splash Screen
• One can redisplay the Splash Screen by selecting in the menu the Blender-Icon to the left of the File menu. Opening any file via this Splash Screen works without problems.

Looks like this was introduced in rB0b626703f99f, because this crash does not happen in the previous commit to master.

Can confirm this issue on rB0b626703f99f on WIndows.

@Clément Foucault (fclem) Thank you for the extremely fast resolution of this issue. I can no longer reproduce this problem in the daily build of February 17, 18:25:57.

I did apply D6850 to the current master-branch and tested it: It solved this problem.
@Evan Wilson (EAW) Thank you for pointing out this workaround.

@Clément Foucault (fclem) Thank you for pointing me to this patch. I will have a look at it.

A few additional notes:

• This issue happens not only for the background, but also for any objects, that have a black color.
• When the intended color is not black, but slightly brighter, the noise is still there, but it is more difficult to notice.