Same issue here with my XPS 17 purchased Nov 2010!!!  Most of the time it boots up fine...but once every two weeks or so...I press the power button, my back-lit keyboard lights up...the buttons on my quickset bar light up....then nothing on the screen...totally black!  I'll just press the power button again and then it will boot up fine...when it does come up after a black screen episode, no recovery message, no prompt to safe mode...just normal boot up like nothing happenned.

It's never happenned when connected to an external monitor, so I can't really tell how far into the boot up it progresses if at all.  It almost seems like a car with a weak battery and it can't start up the engine...my laptop battery is 100% charged...and the black screen has happenned with the AC connected.  Could there be an issue with the laptop power supply???

Any moderators with suggestions? - Thanks!

Cadwae

From what you are describing, when this happens you know that the system is booting there is just no image and the problem never happens when the system is connected to an external monitor, I would have to say that either the LCD panel is failing or there is a loose connection. I suggest going over the connections again and see if anything was missed.  Here is a link to the service manual detailing assembly of the LCD on a Studio 1737.

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Pedrochin

From what you are describing it sounds like you may be having an issue in which the system may not be resuming from sleep.  There is no evidence that the system is actually booting and you have to power the system down and then back up again to correct the problem.  This isn't a power issue as the keyboard is lighting up.  My suggestion is to keep track when this happens, check to see if you fully shut the system down before it happened or only placed the notebook asleep.  See if you was using the same program or using the same function just prior to when the problem happened to try to find a pattern that may give a clue why you are having the problem. Here is a link for a FAQ on sleep mode that may prove to be of some help.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Sleep-and-hibernation-frequently-asked-questions

I also suggest running diagnostics on the system just to verify that there isn't any failing hardware.  Run the PBA (Pre Boot Assessment) test and when that is completed run hardware diagnostics, customer tests and hard drive tests and report back to us any errors.  If the system passes then you can breath easy at least that there is nothing wrong with the hardware on the system. Here is a link detailing the diagnostics.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&docid=DSN_362645&isLegacy=true

TB

Found this old post and I am hoping that Cadwae or someone else had found an answer to the problem.

The screen on my Studio 17 would either work or would go black on boot up  but never would fail it if started successfully.  Sometime would flash white before going black.  Slowly got worse and worse till it failed completely.  So I can till use the Laptop with an external monitor (or hold a flashlight to the screen - not a practical solution)

Because the condition slowly got worse, I am hoping this might indicate a failing cable or bad connection. I've already taken the base of the laptop apart to check that connection.  Now will purchase a replacement cable.  I am hesitant to buy a new screen ($80) if that is not the problem.

I have the model with the LED backlight so there should be no inverter board.

FIXED 

so what I did is replaced the RAM and the screen and then it worked! :emotion-1: