Blank screen post Debian Sarge install

[Agustin <verycoolman@mail.com>]

Hi,

On a friend's computer, following the apparently successful installation
of Debian Sarge (kernel 2.6.8-5), on startup this morning the TFT monitor
remained blank. This installation replaces his previous one which had
kernel 2.4.26-1. My question is this: If we start up in "recovery" mode
and then login as "root", by typing in text mode the command
"dpkg-reconfigure base-config" will we get the option to reconfigure both
monitor and graphics card (NVIDIA I believe)? Maybe there are other
commands that would be useful in this case? 

BTW, is it a good idea to upgrade to kernel 2.6.10 on 386?

Many thanks,

Agustín