Miscellaneous laptop discussions forum: Black screen - what's the cause?

Hi Bob --

No, it never occurred to me to call Toshiba on this. I bought this machine previously owned last winter and it was already out of warranty. That being the case, I don't think I'll be able to call for support without having to pay for it, and I have no interest in sending it away to Toshiba for repair -- I'm hands on enough to handle changing out a hard drive, and if work is needed that I don't feel comfortable doing myself, I'll pursue having it done locally. Really, I was just hoping someone might recognize the symptoms I've described and be able to tell me without too much hassle what the problem is or how I might easily do some preliminary troubleshooting.

Also, here is the other information you requested (I'm sorry I didn't include this when I first posted). I feel certain I'm not dealing with a virus, trojan, or spyware/adware. I'm very careful about keeping my antivirus definitions up to date, and I also scan regularly to eliminate malware -- my machine is clean as a whistle! I've searched through Toshiba's web site but have found nothing that addresses this specific problem. I also run the Toshiba Software Upgrades utility regularly for available updates, and everything is current. Really, this doesn't strike me as a BIOS or driver issue -- given the fact that the problem has been sporadic and has increased slowly but steadily from extremely infrequent to semi-regular, my gut feeling is that it's a slow failure of some hardware component. If you or anyone else can offer further thoughts or advice, I'd appreciate it -- thanks!

Laurie

Thanks for the example -- I see the point of calling Toshiba now. If I can get this problem sorted out, I'll post back and let you know what's causing it. Thanks again!