Snow Leopard Black Screen on Boot, Starts OK

Hi -

I've been having a very strange problem with my early 2011 Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard (10.6.8). Upon startup, after the chime, instead of getting the usual white screen with apple logo and load icon, I get only a backlit black screen, followed by an un-backlit black screen and then to desktop.

Just to clarify, it boots up to the desktop without fail. However, it is causing some problems. For one, I had a windows partition that I was accessing for a while without a problem, but suddenly, when I would reboot and hold down the option key, I was getting only the backlit black screen and nothing else. I can only assume that instead of the black screen i was supposed to be seeing the two HD icons that would allow me to choose my windows partition.

I do not believe that this problem has to do with Bootcamp, however it is possible. But I believe the problem starting happening before installing windows. And oddly, it began happening once in a while and then became worse overtime.

The computer runs normally otherwise, which I find strange. It is just this boot up screen problem. Since the problem, I've of course tried repairing the disk and reinstalling the OS (without erasing).

My next step is to obliterate the disk and start absolutely new. However, I'd like to try to avoid that if possible.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I haven't been able to find anyone with a similar issue. The closest issue I've found that sounds similar is a black screen on startup and no boot to desktop. I get the black screen, but it boots up fine. So strange.

Please someone help me if you have any ideas. Thanks!

--- SOLVED ---

okay so i did a pram reset (restart and hold option+cmd+PR) and that seemed to work.