Studio 17 Screen Stays Black Every Second Boot from Shutdown

[memorex556]

I am running a Dell Studio 17 Laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo P8600@2,40Ghz using Windows 7 Ultimate 32 Bit OS (SP 1) and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650.

I have noticed in the past few months that if I shut down my computer the display doesn't light up when I turn it on again. The computer boots and I can hear the Windows sound as it starts up, but no display, not even the initial splash screen during BIOS startup and POST. If I hold down the power button and shut it off and turn on again I have my display back and I get the "windows did not start properly" msg. I choose "Start Windows Normally" and everything works fine. If I shut the computer down again I get the same problem, so effectively it fails EXACTLY every second start after shutdown. It never fails on Sleep or Hibernate and am not sure if it fails on restart but I don't think so. I don't believe that there is anything wrong with the screen hardware or connection, it must be a software thing. I installed Windows 7 three months ago and although I don't think this problem happened immediately after I installed the OS, it certainly didn't happen when I ran XP.

It isn't a serious problem, but it is very annoying. Anyone have any idea what is going on?

 

[frozenlead]

Does it happen with a second monitor?

On the reboot where it fails, does the BIOS POST screen appear? Or does the screen go black just after that? What happens if you reboot the second time with a Linux Live CD?

We need to nail down if this is a software or hardware problem first.

 

[memorex556]

Does it happen with a second monitor?

On the reboot where it fails, does the BIOS POST screen appear? Or does the screen go black just after that? What happens if you reboot the second time with a Linux Live CD?

We need to nail down if this is a software or hardware problem first.

I haven't tried it wioth a second monitor; will try that next time. There is absolutely no video at all, not even during POST or BIOS load; this makes me believe it is operating system independent because it happens before Windows boot. It doesn't fail POST either; I hear the windows sound when it gets to the login screen, I just have no display. I have never tried a LINUX Live CD