Laptop Screen Dies After Windows Logo (start-up)

Ok well for a few days my laptops been playing up... When i turn it on all i get is grey bars (its been doing that for years, gfx card problem) so the only way i can see is to plug in a monitor and watch through that. (its really irritating because my laptops res is 1440 x 900 but with this monitor i have to use 1024 x 768. Ok well so after i turn it on the windows logo shows, loads and then its supposed to go onto the log on screen but the screen just blacks out as if its off.Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks in advance
AcroneSFP.S: Formatting is out of the question. Took me weeks to get my laptop working right after the last format...Specs:
Windows XP Profressional
Version 2002
Service Pack 3Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Model: HP Pavilion dv9205tx Notebook PC
Processor: Intel® Core™2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz x2 (says there two of them)
Ram: 2GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600

Does the system actually power off or not? which screen goes black?I recently helped someone fix their DV9000, they were having all kinds of weird graphics issues and the thing was running way too hot. The solution was to dismantle it and clean all the dust and dirt out, and then put it back together. It may help in your case.