the problem is, whenever i turn on my computer, the screen goes extremely dark (after a few seconds), to where i can't do anything on it it's not COMPLETELY black, it's only about 90% dark (i'm still barely able to see my desktop icons, if i look closely at my screen) first time it happened i tried to adjust my monitors color settings (by pressing the little button on monitor), but even that menu was so dark i couldnt see what i was doing.. this doesn't happen all the time. (i'm on the computer right now) but it took me about 15 tries! (kept restarting when computer went dark) also, sometimes it doesn't go dark right away. sometimes it's fine for a whole 5 seconds (im able to see my desktop) but then it goes dark, and i have to restart and try again.. ive recently reformatted/wiped my entire harddrive (gutmann wipe) maybe this has something to do with it? ive found some interesting things too: -it even happens during BIOS mode -this never happens during safe mode -also i was curious, so i took a screenshot while my screen was dark (it was hard.. could barely see what i was doing) later on, i opened it, and to my surprise the screenshot wasn't dark.. it looked completely normal so, what do you guys think? why is this happening? if you need information about my pc specs ask me ill try my best, not too good with computers -Jim

ah, nevermind.. i turned off "enable hibernation" in power management settings, apparently that was the reason... =/ i feel dumb now

I find it hard to believe that the hibernation setting had anything to do with your problem. If you have an LCD monitor, I would suspect the backlight is dying. If you have a CRT monitor, my guess is that the monitor dying.

youre right.. it started acting up again. hibernation thing didnt fix it it's an LCD monitor i thought it was a problem with my computer, but what you said makes sense.. i guess i have to buy a new monitor? thanks for the help, probably would of never figured it out -Lice

For some info about replacing a voltage inverter or backlight, and what some typical symptoms are, see response 5 in this: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...