I know you are dealing with a Dell, but this link has some suggestions for fixing the black screen problem that might apply: http://www.linlap.com/wiki/toshiba+satellite+pro+u500+-+i3+i5+model --[Lance] -- GPG Fingerprint: 409B A409 A38D 92BF 15D9 6EEE 9A82 F2AC 69AC 07B9 CACert.org Assurer