Dell 9400 Black / Blank Screen - Only Works on Second Windows XP Load

Hello all.  I am having an issue with my three year old Dell 9400 Laptop with the GeForce Go 7800 Video Card.

1.  The Dell 9400 LCD Screen is blank / black anytime I first power on the laptop. This includes, hibernation, stand-by, reboot, or full boot.

2.  I have tried different configurations, including using only the battery, using just power, using both when starting up.

3.  All lights on the keyboard (WiFI, Caps, Power, HD and Power) are working and the system is definitely loading.  The backlight seems to work too as there is a thin white glow at the bottom of the screen and flickers once Windows loads to a darker, fuller brown/black color (Windows has loaded basically).

4.  The screen stays blank / black once Windows loads. My options are then to reboot.

However, I can get the screen to work by doing the following:

1.  Power up the laptop and allow Windows XP to load completely (even though I cannot see it loading).  I can tell by the default Windows XP sound once its complete.

2.  Pull the power including battery and cord.  I must completey cut the power, or nothing happens.  If it maintains power, then it keeps booting to a blank screen.

3.  Reboot.

If I do that, then most of the time the screen will come back on and be viewable just fine.  It does not work 100% of the time, but most of the time on a second Windows load, I can get the screen to load. 

Once I had the screen loaded, I ran all diagnostic tests and everything passed completely.  I also reinstalled the Video driver and Quickset driver (in case it was a setting issue).

Any ideas?  Is this software or hardware?  Both?