If there is a magical way to make the serial port tx. pin NOT SEND DATA while programming, that would be awesome. I have hard-wired serial LCD's to the arduino, and they occassionally will get screwed up from programming if it sends the 0xFE special character followed by something fun like changing the baud rate.
If there is a magical way to make the serial port tx. pin NOT SEND DATA while programming, that would be awesome.
Clearly, there is more than one way. Just look at all the posts that complain that the Arduino is not responding (properly) when they try to program it. Pick any one of the things the OP did before the Arduino quit responding, and do that.
Of course, if you do that, you'll be back in here wondering why you can't program the Arduino any more, but that's a small price to pay, isn't it.
The Arduino has to be able to transmit back to the PC in order to program it.
You need someway to unplug or otherwise disconnect the LCD before programming the Arduino.
The TX/RX lines are used when programming the Arduino, so try to use NewSoftSerial - http://sundial.org/arduino/index.php/newsoftserial/ to connect your LCD to another pin.
I've been looking at different ideas for my projects and ran across the Teensy. It is NOT an Arduino, but works very similarly. I do not have one, but, the Teensy has on-board USB and looks like it has some advantages over the Arduino. It is possible that it could resolve your issue. I will likely buy one soon and try it out myself. Have a look. Teensyduino - Add-on for Arduino IDE to use Teensy USB development board