Old W7 laptop black startup screen (Toshiba Satellite L350D)

Hello niknak,

Does it appear to try to start normally, before going into a black screen? Does the black screen have a cursor showing?

Try taking out the battery and putting it back in. Then press shift, F8, and the power button at the same time.

Didn't work, try Booting into Safe Mode. Restart PC, start taping the (F8) key to enter Advanced Boot Options menu, select Safe Mode. Once Safe Mode is up running, go to the search box, type System Restore, select a Restore point. Reboot

Didn't work, can you get into the BIOS screen? At Boot start taping the, F12, F10, or F2 key.
Does the Hard Drive show up in BIOS?

Other things to try:

Tell him to pickup the Laptop and listen at the fan vent to see if he can hear the fan running. If he can hear the fan.
Try connecting an external Monitor the Laptop, if no picture. Some Laptops require you to press the FN key, then press the F-key which has a picture of a monitor on it to active the external monitor. Didn't work.

Try removing the battery and AC Adapter, making sure he is grounded. Remove one Memory stick. Put the Battery back in and power up the PC, see if there's a picture now, if not, put the Memory stick back in and remove the other Memory stick, put the battery in again see if there's a picture.

John