Ok, so an easy way to determine what the calculator is doing when the screen is off is to press some buttons.

Boot into the calculator with battery+DEL and then:
1. Press any button besides ON - if the screen turns off, then the boot code is immediately throwing a link error
2. Press ON, then press any button besides ON - if the screen turns off, then the boot code is indeed waiting to receive an OS
3. If no amount of button mashing can get the screen to turn off, then you've got some serious problems (or you incorrectly entered battery+DEL)

I am having the same black screen problm with my ti-83+. i do not have a problem turning off my calculator. I tried steps 1 and 2. When I tried step 1 it did not turn off. When i tried step 2 the screen did turn off. Do you know how I can fix my calculator?