Intermittent black screen of death

[scudshouse]

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Charge remaining (mAh): 293
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3514
Health Information:
Cycle count: 321
Condition: Fair
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 1558
Voltage (mV): 12046

Recently my laptop has been intermittent in turning back on after either shutting down or restarting. When I turn it on I hear the CD drive and then there is no startup sound and the screen stays black (forever). Even following repeated power on, power off cycles the problem still exist. I have tried resetting the PSU and all of the other tricks (no battery, switching RAM modules, calibrating battery) and still nothing. So I have resulted to just leaving it alone for awhile either charging or letting it completely running out of power and then plugging it in and trying it at some random point throughout the day. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. After reading some internet posts I am leaning toward the documented NVIDA Video Card issue with MacBooks (mine does fall within the dates provided on the articles) I am wondering if there is anything else that it could be before I take it in to the Mac Store to get looked at. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[djackmac]

Try zapping PRAM by holding command+option+P+R at start-up until you hear at least 3 chimes. But if its the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor yours should be covered. They can tell you right there. It literally takes 5 minutes to run the graphics processor test.