I'm using an IBM Thinkpad T42 running Windows XP.

My video card is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600.

I'm not exactly sure what I did if I did anything but last night while I was using my laptop my screen went blank but my hardrive light was still flashing. The screen wouldn't come back for anything so I restarted it and the screen goes black again after a few minutes of using my computer. So , again I restarted and the screen would be blank on boot. Not even the screen where it says "IBM Thinkpad" displays. Testing out a few more restarts I found out that the screen would go blank at random times. Either during boot or right after Windows XP loads or after a few minutes of using the laptop.

On certain times after a restart I would get an error message about my ati driver causing the problem. So I try to reinstalll the latest catalyst driver from the ati site but it can't install because it says I have to have a Standard VGA driver installed before installing the new driver. The thing is that I don;t know how to install the Standard driver. I'm also wondering if its even the driver thats the problem because the screen does go black even in the BIOS. I assume it's a hard drive problem, maybe causing a .dll fill in my video drivers to be corrupted or some sort. I don't know really. I would really appreciate it if someone knew what my problem was and how to fix it.

If the screen is blanking during the bios setup screen then the fault is far more serious than a drive error. If your laptop is still under warranty then i recon taking it back to get it fixed or replaced would be your best bet.

You've probably got a bad LCD connection (as they are common with IBM and HP laptops). Try to wiggle the screen, does it come back on?
If it's under warranty, then send it out for repair.

Hi f33t. I have the exact same problem. I suspect it is my mother board because I can tap all around the computer and get the screen to flicker in and out before it finally flickers out and then the hard drive stops and I have to manually power down (and attaching an external monitor does the same). Can you post what the diagnosis turned out to be and how you resolved the problem so myself and others who come across this thread can know? Thanks.

You may want to start a new thread about your problem. This post is very old.

btw...welcome to Techspot!!!

My problem was the mother board. Was replaced for free under warranty, and all is fixed.