You may have a driver mismatch to the monitor. Try this: Boot up in the safe mode. That mode loads only the essential software to operate the computer and loads a low resolution, generic monitor driver. Does your monitor oepeate in this mode? If so, you may be on the path to a cure. Change the monitor driver to one that suits your monitor, then reboot. After you get it working again, check to see how the sleep modes are set. Before you change the driver, record the one that is current. You may wish to return to return to it. ************************** A tip for future reference: Before changing monitors, set the driver to the low resolution VGA mode, 640 x 480 pixels. Change monitors and then change to a driver one that matches the replacement monitor. ************************** I see another possible problem and that is your old monitor may not be plug-and-play. The later versions of Windows do plug-n-play while booting. It attempts to interrogate your monitor and if it gets a return of garbage, it may act on it if it isn't smart enough to know this is not a plug-n-play device. I ruined a monitor once when I first installed Windows 95. I had a video card that had the capablity to output a wide range of driving voltages to the monitor's sweep circuits. However, it was not a plug-n-play device. Windows set the card to the wrong voltages and overdrove the sweep circuits. The monitor lasted about 5 minutes. Lets us know how it turns out. If the monitor does not operate in the "safe mode", there is something more wrong - could be the monitor, or could be the video hardware /circuits.

Maura, This is my office now and since I do have the lap top I can move it over to the right when I need more desk space or push it back under the shelf and reach out to type. I have even had two laptops on the desk at once repairing one while getting repair directions on the other. The printer is on the left under the fabric and lace cover I just push back when I am using it and my office supplies are in the drawer under the printer. The desk is really small and I took the top off of an old wood kitchen table and set it on top of the small desk to give me more desk top area but not a larger foot print on the floor. This way I was able to tuck in the little one drawer thing with the printer. The other little side table is an old old hospital bedside meal tray.I use it for many things. I know this is all a bit crowded but this room is multi functional. It is my office, sewing room ,craft storage space, mosaic workroom and my exercise room. The room is 10 foot by 10 foot. Chris Here is a link that might be useful:

DH laid it in the back floor of the car and then forgot about it. He moved the seat back and squished it (the screen was against the seat and the actual computer part was "possibly" protected since the screen was between it and the seat. I may just have to invest in a hard side case instead of a soft side one. So far I have gotten everything off- still need to dig out the internet bookmarks. I am actually using it right now to send this. The right side of the screen scrolls very quickly by itself (think old B/W TVs where you had to adjust the connected rabbit ears) then there is a giant white section and then the left 1/3 of the screen works but has black sports the size of a silver dollar. I just ran my statistical software and the analysis is coming out like it did this morning. This is a snapshot of the laptop screen (I added the red square to show that is supposed to be my desktop. When I do an "Alt+PrtSc" and save it as a picture, I get the whole desktop (hope I do not offend anyone with my pic, it is from LOL-Cat and so cute!) I just used my level and it appears to NOT be warped... tried it on the desk and the floor because the house and desk are both over 100 years old and not that level, themselves... but the button in the level appears to be in the same spot where it is sitting directly on the desk or on the laptop sitting on the desk. Since the alt-print screen show everything and the software appears to be working, am I fairly safe that the computer is okay? What else should I do to check the hard drive? THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you for your reply, Snidely. Yesterday I had a three way conversation with HP and Costco concierge service. They said HDMI adaptor over and over .I need to make my LCD monitor work and was previously using VGA cables to my last computer. I finally realized that they didn't mean a small plastic adapter like you would use in a socket they meant cables. I need a cable with male HDMI ends. I picked the same one from Amazon as Mike_GW. My HDMI slots look more like a USB inside and shape outside has slanted sides. I know nothing about using DVI. I was only given a packing list. I will try and take a picture of it