Garry's Mod Black Screen on launch. any help appreciated :)

[18seven]

Hello, I've logged a total of 1580 hours on Gmod over the years, and have never had this problem on this computer until now. I stopped playing the game for a few months and am coming back in game now after all of these updates hit, which is where i'm assuming my problem has arisen. When attempting to launch Gmod, it says "preparing to launch" then turns my entire screen black, and stays there. I've let it sit for a total of 3 hours and nothing. I've attempted to set custom launch settings such as -dxlevel 81, and eve specified screen resolutions, still nothing. I've updated every driver I could find, except for the fact that when I attempt to download the Intel HD graphics driver from HP's website, it says my installed driver is newer than the one HP is offering, so it could have something to do with that. I've even resorted to uninstalling steam, then re-installing steam, garry's mod, and all associated games, still nothing. I've verified the game cache of gmod and all associated games as well. I've tried everything that I know to, and no luck. Below are my system specs, I know threads like these don't get much response from the community, so I would be really grateful for any attention this gets and any help that you guys can offer. Thank you very much.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
System Model HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard F.1B, 10/23/2012
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.95 GB
Available Physical Memory 4.55 GB
Total Virtual Memory 15.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory 11.8 GB
Name Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000
Adapter Type Intel(R) HD Graphics Family, Intel Corporation compatible
Adapter Description Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000
Driver Version 9.17.10.3347

If you need any other info, please let me know. Thanks again.

*edit* When I attempt to open Counterstrike Source, I also get a blank black screen, but it plays the music that comes on when the valve logo is displayed before the main menu comes up. I'll begin troubleshooting Counterstrike and see if I can find someone with similar trouble and a solution. Whatever I find I'll post here for others who have this issue.

attempted to update graphics driver through intel themselves rather than HP. no luck. intel states that the graphics driver is current

[editline]17th February 2014[/editline]

I forced the game to launch in windowed mode, and it's displaying just fine now. I read somewhere else that the game was trying to use an external display as it's primary and causing this problem. My projector isn't currently connected to my pc, but has been in the past, and it may still be trying to use the projector as a primary display. Anyone have any idea on how to verify that an external display is disabled? Here is the thread where I read this. Thanks again. [url]http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1223682[/url]

[djmaster329]

[QUOTE=18seven;43939496]

[editline]17th February 2014[/editline]

I forced the game to launch in windowed mode, and it's displaying just fine now. I read somewhere else that the game was trying to use an external display as it's primary and causing this problem. My projector isn't currently connected to my pc, but has been in the past, and it may still be trying to use the projector as a primary display. Anyone have any idea on how to verify that an external display is disabled? Here is the thread where I read this. Thanks again. [url]http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1223682[/url][/QUOTE]

Try pressing WIN+P. Click Computer only. ([URL="http://users.wfu.edu/yipcw/lenovo/t410/w7-external_display/images/w7-fnf7-win_p.gif"]example here[/URL])
After that try relaunching the game in full screen.