Is it possible that my wireless network card is causing my laptop to not start. I have an Everex Stepnote VA4300M that goes to a black screen at startup. THe wireless card & monitor seem to have some common cables.

It could be the culprit but it could also be corrupt system files, bad hard drive, bad motherboard. There could be a number of reasons why your laptop goes to a black screen.

The best way to tell if your wireless card is shorting out the motherboard to cause it not to boot is to take out the wireless card completely from the laptop and then turn it on and see if it goes past the black screen, if it does then you know thats the problem, if it doesn't then it could be some of the other reasons i mentioned.