My two year old Thinkpad T43p (XP Home) started having monitor problems. After five to ten minutes following a reboot, the screen goes black, or nearly black. I can see the ghost image of the open windows and desktop barely, and I can interact with them, so I know the system is up.
After a reboot, everything is OK for five to ten minutes, when it happens again. If it was hardware, would it always be "fixed" by a reboot?