Or you could just press the eject button when the screen goes blank
No, if when you choose to boot original bios the screen goes black, pressing the eject button will make it boot up just fine 9 times out of 10.
Dont listen to that guy who told you to use slayers, he doesnt know what hes talking about or about this problem.
EDIT: Just make sure you keep you clock date and time correct as that seems to be a factor in the blank screen thing.
I only ever lock HDD's with configmagic, that way even if i lose the eeprom and the key i know it can always been unlocked using the master password of "TEAMASSEMBLY" whereas other methods to lock the HDD dont put a master password in.