windows vista black screen

[atomicsqueegee]

Okay so a friend of mine has a laptop with vista (of course). She's had it for two years, and she hasn't had many issues besides her fan acting funny (not sure if she means her cooling pad or the actual fan in the computer.)  The last time she shut it down, she put it on hibernate, and when she tried to bring it up, nothing happens.  There's just a black screen though the computer is clearly on. 

The only real recent issue she had was with some computer trying to access hers, but that was resolved. 

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Mulreay]

Ok basics first please... has she turned the laptop LCD onto an external Monitor? On my laptop I can press Fn button and f4 to change from laptop screen to an external monitor. Is there anything at all on the screen? Does the screen glow which means brighter than black (dead)? Does the screen show anything at all? Do you get the normal start up sounds on the laptop you would expect inc the window's start up tune?

[atomicsqueegee]

well first off, I'm not completely sure how to hook it up to another monitor, and she isn't either, and as far as I can tell, she can hear everything working/lights come on and whatnot, but it's completely black (at first it was 'lit up' and black, but then it was completely dead.  She didn't say anything about the start up tune, but as far as I can tell she doesn't get it.

[Mulreay]

Ok sorry to confuse you. You don't need to have an external monitor to switch your laptop over to it.. you just press the right buttons and then your laptop thinks you have got one. Generally it will still show the screen on the laptop anyway but I was just testing the water. Have you got any backup disks? Can you use a friends monitor and link it up with a VGA lead just to see if it's the screen? There should be a 15 point port in the back that will accept a VGA lead.