Like the 1000s of others online having troubles with completing an install of Windows 7, here I am looking for advice.

I just bought the computer yesterday and specs are:
- AMD Athlon X2 X250 Dual Core (3.0Ghz)
- Graphics Controller on Board
- AM3 Motherboard
- HD Audio on Board
- 500GB SATAII HDD
- DVD Burner Dual Layer
- 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
- Widetech Tower With 500W PSU

All works properly and is identified correctly in the various places they're listed through the Control Panel.

I've installed the same Win 7 program successfully two weeks ago on a PC with 512mb and some old motherboard with sound drivers that never worked. The install was flawless and my heart sings when I remember the ease. Unfortunately, multi-tasking was out of the question with the small amount of RAM, hence the upgrade.

The install went through easily until it was time for the computer to reboot in order to complete setup and registry settings, etc. I saw the Starting Windows... and floating logo form prettily and the screen went black.

In the end, I've installed the program 4 times (sometimes installing over the top, sometimes deleting all partitions) with the same result. I did hear that behind the scenes something was going on, so I've disabled all power settings that the monitor might have had enabled by default while in Safe Mode. No change.

Finally, I formatted again and installed Win XP and then did a clean install of Win 7 over that. Win XP installed flawlessly. Win 7 still shows the black screen. It was 5am so I swallowed the red hot fury I felt and went to bed.

Got up, accidentally nudged the mouse and the screen woke up! Spent the day installing programs and thought, what the heck, at least I'm a pro at formatting now, so I restarted the PC properly. Same black screen after the Starting Windows... and floating logo.

I left the PC alone for an hour and then nudged the mouse. Nothing.

After 2 hours, I connected an external hard drive to prepare for shifting videos and stuff from the PC in preparation for the format. I could hear the USB HDD connect up but no monitor activity.

Almost 3.25 hours after I first left the PC alone, I nudged the mouse and the screen came to life.

This is supposed to be a business computer and it's not going to work with the monitor situation. Is there a way I can install Win XP for initial access to the computer and then work in Win 7? Is that a dual boot? I don't really need Win XP for anything else but I've grown to enjoy using Win 7 and would prefer that as my main OS.

Thanks for any advice!

Just an update, the black screen only happens at startup. I've disabled all the power savings stuff for the monitor through the OS but the screen still goes to sleep (BIOS settings?). The great news is that a nudge of the mouse wakes it up immediately.

I don't know how to get into the BIOS because the motherboard install created a huge splash screen that comes up when booting and pressing the F# keys and the DEL key had no effect during boot up. The manual says the DEL key is supposed to get me into BIOS but that hasn't worked. I've never had a computer without the scrolling PC info at startup so I'm stumped.