My system had been working fine. This evening I simply restarted the machine (absolutely nothing else changed or installed). I see the display on startup (BIOS etc.) and the choice of kernels. But partway through the boot sequence, the display goes blank. The monitor does not go to 'power save' mode, so there must be some signal, but I don't see anything. I tried re-starting several times, with all three versions of the kernel (all 3 were working fine before too).

I tried Ctrl+Alt+F1 -- the txt display appears for about 2 seconds then disappears. No CTRL+Alt+F7 or F<anything> helps from here on.

I also tried booting with "init 3" -- made no difference at all - blank display.

Also tried another monitor, and connecting to both DVI and analog display ports on the system - exact same symptoms.

I suspect that Xserver is throwing a fit...

I can't fathom what changed during the re-start. I really appreciate any help or ideas.

The worst part is that since I can't see anything, I can't debug the system either...

In the worst event boot a Live CD and check /var/log log files?

After an upgrade my computer acted similarly. It would boot to a certain point then everything go black.... the monitor would complain of a lack of input.... then after some time would continue to boot and everything be OK. To fix this, I installed "Startup Manager" and set under the display category the resolution to 1024 x 768. I hope this helps you.

Please turn your computer on and let it sit for a bit, blackness and all. See if it continues to boot... give it like 5 minutes or so. Actually you should have your answer sooner than that .. but 5 min to be safe. If you can get to your desktop, I believe my fix will help u .

I have tried booting with Tinycore linux, but I can't seem to mount the hard disk so I can't access the logs or change init.

Also, following up to suggestions from swright007, my system display does not recover, even after waiting for as long as 15 min. So, I can change the resolution since I can't see anything.

Any other ideas??

Is there a way to boot to system prompt and not run xserver? Like I said in OP, I tried Ctrl+Alt+F1...

Sounds like driver conflict or your operating system is becoming degraded from either time in use or upgrades. I just worked through that issue myself last night. Try running off a LIVE-CD to confirm.. If it can work off the live-cd and it won't with your installed operating system, that should tell you that what you are working with isn't what a fresh install is supposed to be. if all else fails, a fresh install (even if painful) might be a good fix. You should be able to access your files with the LIVE CD if you need to back things up prior to a reinstall if you feel you need to. I hope someone comes up with something else so you don't have to reinstall.

If you boot from Ubuntu Live CD, it normally sees your hard drive and everything via the native Nautilus File manager.

Problem fixed.

It was indeed a driver issue (I've had so many issues with drivers for my ATI FirePro V4800 !!!) Xserver was sending some weird resolution that could not be displayed on any of my monitors - hence the blank display.

Anyway, I connected the system using a DVI cable (prev VGA) and pressed Ctrl-Alt-F1 (which prev hadn't worked). By some stroke of luck or lucky keypress, on the millionth attempt, the system started in 600x400 resolution. At this point, I modified /ect/inittab to 'init 3', restarted in txt mode, re-installed the latest ATI drivers. Then re-set to 'init 5' and everything was back to normal.

As an aside, I have never been able to install the video car drivers with xserver running. I always start in txt mode (init 3) to install or update the video drivers.

Linux usually has issues with ATI... I have used MANY Nvidia cards and never had a notable issue. If you have any more problems, switching to an NVIDIA card might be something to consider.