I have a Toshiba Satellite T1300, the computers starts fine but the video screen is black.

Try to hook it up to an external monitor, if this works,your video card is working, Next Step.. then look on the laptop keyboard for a functiion key with a little picture of a screen on it, usually u have to hold down the fn key and hit F4, or F5 or F6 etc, look at the F keys at the top of the keyboard, and hold down function key at the bottom left of the keyboard, usually near the alt and ctrl keys, if you dont have a fn key (function key then hit ctr key, and at the same time hit the F key with screen pic on it, it might say lcd on key or be a box inside a box on the key. If this doesnt work try rebooting the laptop in safe mode by hitting F8 key before windows starts and go into safe mode. It is possible that a recent program or windows update that was installed is causing the blank screen. If the black screen happened after a new software install, delete that software while in safe mode. And reboot, Good Luck :)