Hardware

Not so much the drivers but the Resolution that the Screen is set to in Normal Mode.

While in Safe Mode you are running with Video Defaults and not the actual Video Drivers for your Hardware. You need to alter the Video Settings as low as they go in Normal Mode and then reset as required but under the abilities of your Screen. You may need to uninstall the Video Driver in Safe Mode and then start the system in Normal Mode. If you have to do that make sure to use the Video Cards Uninstall Option not the Add Remove Programs.

Just as a side note you haven't been doing anything like using Dual Monitors with this NB have you?

If you have you could have switched the Monitor to the External One and not the one on the NB. If that's the case you'll need to use the Key Combination that you used to switch the Monitor in the first place.

Col

I have had this happen on numerous occasions and found that it was a windows update causing the problem...for some reason when i would do a video driver update from the windows site, it would do this exact same thing. The only way i was able to combat it was reloading (again) and installing all the drivers from the manufacturers site, then doing a custom update and install ONLY the critical updates to the system. (I am assuming this system is running an nvidia or ati card since it is a laptop with 512mb video, this happened to me with an intel card and 32 mb shared video, but the concept still is the same)

*edited for the stuff in the ()