Dell Laptop Screen Goes Black after BIOS runs

[courtneygorley]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 with 60 GB hard drive and 2 GB ram with Pentium m.  Running Windows XP professional.  I was not currently using any anti-virus software so it might have gotten a virus. 

When I turn it on the BIOS runs and then it just goes to a black screen with the a dim backlight.   I can enter the setup mode or boot menu but when I enter boot menu it gives me a list of devices to boot including the hard drive which if selected results in the same blank screen.  I can also select a diagnostics tool which i ran all test with no errors at all.  

I removed all external devices and the CD drive with no change.  I then removed the hard drive and instead of a blank screen I got a message stating no bootable devices installed.

Is my hard drive shot?  If so why did it pass the diagnostic test?

Any help would be great.

[Computer_Commando]

...
1.  Is my hard drive shot? 
2.  If so why did it pass the diagnostic test?
...

1.  That's what I was thinking as you were describing it.
2.  Don't know what the Dell diagnostic test does.  Get the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic CD.