What Causes the Black Screen of Death on the Fat Ps3 and How Do You Fix It?

i tried holding down the power button to hear the beeps and nothing shows up on the screen

Suggestion:

black screen of death did u say?
alright i read somewhere that its caused by corrupt os(the xmb) so just download the software from the playstation website (from a pc) load it onto a removable media (any usb or disc's will do) fire the ps3 insert the media n it wil install……….it'll be back in no time
the link for the software is

http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/index.htm

i think this will work 99% just google search black screen of death before u try it out
n one more thing load the software like this in the media
create a folder PS3(all caps)->UPDATE(all caps)->place the update file the update file