Screen Gone Black & Lack of Power-Down Command

[Starwind51]

I have a laptop and a netbook, I'm using the netbook to describe the problem with the laptop.

I did a driver scan of the laptop and the list of outdated drivers included two mice/mouses.  I recognized one mouse by name, and since I have no intention of using either mice/mouses in the future I opened the Device Manager, looked for hidden mice.  I uninstalled the drivers, carefully leaving my Synaptics pointing device.

Then I carefully looked for other hidden unused drivers.  I looked up each one on at least two websites to see what they were and what other people had said about them.  One group of drivers belonged to Computer Associates, a service I don't use any more so I uninstalled them.  Another group belonged to Norton Symantec and since I don't use them either I uninstalled those drivers.  Then I went to a website to look up the next group of hidden unused drivers and while looking at the website the screen went black. 

All appropriate power buttons on the computer were still lit.  With nothing on the screen to guide me, I press CNTRL-ALT-DEL to shut off the computer so I could reboot.  The computer didn't respond, I tried it again, then had to use the power button.

I left the laptop off for a few minute.  The light that indicates the laptop is still plugged in to a power source was still lit, and when I pressed the power button the other power lights came on, and the computer seems to start up, but the screen stayed black.  I left the computer alone till I guessed it went through the powering up cycle, then tried pressing CNTRL-ALT-DEL again, and again, the laptop didn't respond, so I used the power button to turn it off.

I am sure I didn't uninstall anything related to the screen or anything related to power commands.

Is there anything I can try to get my screen working?  Is there a connection between not having visual and the machine not responding to the C-A-D command? 

     

[patio]

Hardware uses drivers...software generally doesn't except in rare cases.
I'll start with a statement then questions...

None of the Helpers here that have been around ever recommend any "driver finder" apps...or those all in 1 "fixit tools or registry cleaners"...
This is for good reasons as you are finding out now.

What happened with the PC that sent you on a driver mission ? ?
Was there any glitches in it prior to these fixes you applied ? ?

More info on the PC in question and the OS will benefit a quicker solution as well...

[Starwind51]

Somebody here gave me a link to something that led to downloading the driver whatever program.  I downloaded it but didn't use it because I was trying to accomplish something else at the time.  Then two days ago I clicked the logo because I forgot what it was the thing was supposed to do.  It gave me a list of drivers that needed updating.  Since I didn't want the mouse drivers to update I looked around the net to find out how to uninstall them.  I read discussions on uninstalling other drivers for objects and programs that no longer present and since I will remove anything un-needed to gain space on the hard drive I looked at the different categories of installed stuff and when I saw something in faded gray I researched it.  I don't use the mice, I don't use Semantec, I don't use Computer Associates, so there was no reason to keep the drivers.  If I don't have to load them, that's something less than needs to load.  I've been trying for years to find out the source of my ever clogging hard drive and my periodically over heating laptop.