okay so i thought i had it all fixed when i downloaded and installed the new kernel & sources, new gcc compiler, and reinstalled the nvidia drivers. everything worked greatly! buuuuuuut, my computer was shut off by my nephew (ran into the plug which isn't very secure and turns off rather easily). when i rebooted, i got the same blank screen staring at me as before. right now im back on the system only because i changed my xorg.conf to use the "nv" driver instead of "nvidia".

i don't want to waste my time getting the new kernel, new source, and new gcc again, install the drivers again, and then when i reboot it doesnt work.. there's something buggy going on. any ideas?