Well thats what I get for speed reading and doing four private messages at once while watching Hulu..

I mis-read.

Actually I would have no clue on this one. Try a PRAM re-set. Really the start-up procedure should not matter. I think its more of a coincidence that one method seems to work better than the other. Do you typically try with keyboard first? Is this repeatable - that is if its been working just fine can you shut it down and start it right back up with keyboard and still get a black screen?