Black screen after boot up

hi there, having a problem with my nieces satellite pro laptop , starts up fine then when it should show you the start up page with all the icons etc , its gone completely black , tried a system restore but nothing , even tried to put disc in to reformat but the machine would not read it , any help would be great , thanks

OP is windows 7 home

 

Greetings, paul70.

More info would help: operating system version and Service Pack #, antivirus software, etc.

Will the machine start in Safe Mode?

 

Op system is windows7 home edition ,not to sure about the service pack , tried safe mode earlier , black screen appeared with safe mode on the top and bottom the black screen

 

Tell you what, boot it normally, press enter, then type the password.

See if you hear the normal sounds of the desktop loading.

This may be an LCD issue. MAYBE.

Can you hook it to an external monitor?

 

At the black screen try hitting the left shift key 5 or 6 times in a row quickly do you get a sound or sticky keys popup?

How were you able to attempt system restore?