Wake from sleep - screen briefly comes on and then goes black

Question

I have a late 2010 mbp 17" model with no issues until last night.
I have my computer plugged in, and when it's not in use I close the display down and the computer enters sleep mode.  When waking it from sleep, the screen will briefly come on and then go black.  After a few opening and closings of the display, the display will remain on - the number of times opening and closing the display varies before it remains on.
An easier solution I just tried is by unplugging the computer from power - the display comes right on and remains that way.
When the display goes out, the keyboard backlight remains lit.
The only thing I recall that would have any sort of adverse affect on this is the static electricity that I had with this yesterday or the day before.  I live in a dry climate and was shocked when I touched the computer the other day.  Nothing really bad, but could this be the culprit?  Again, I have never had any issues like this before.
Is there a solution to this?  Within the energy saver, the settings (except the amount of time before the computer/display goes to sleep) is identical for both powered and battery sources.
Thank you for any help.
- Jeff

Answer 1

To add, I have tried the following:
Open Terminal
Type the following:
     pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
It should say something like:
     hibernatemode  3
Here's an explanation of the different types of hibernate modes:
0 - Old style sleep mode, with RAM powered on while sleeping, safe sleep disabled, and super-fast wake.
1 - Hibernation mode, with RAM contents written to disk, system totally shut down while “sleeping,” and slower wake up, due to reading the contents of RAM off the hard drive.
3 - The default mode on machines introduced since about fall 2005. RAM is powered on while sleeping, but RAM contents are also written to disk before sleeping. In the event of total power loss, the system enters hibernation mode automatically.
5 - This is the same as mode 1, but it’s for those using secure virtual memory (in System Preferences -> Security).
7 - This is the same as mode 3, but it’s for those using secure virtual memory.
To change your sleep mode, use the following command:
     sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
(replace 0 with whatever hibernate mode you desire)"
Also - the white light that comes on while in sleep mode on the front right of the computer does not fade in and out like it used to...
Gah, I don't like issues