I had a laptop running Windows 7 connected to an external monitor with a plain old double-headed VGA cable this morning, and everything was working fine. In the afternoon, there was a brief power outage in my area. It was just a second long, but that was long enough for all my devices to shut off (except for the laptop itself, which was plugged in but had a fully charged battery). Both the monitor and computer were plugged into a surge protector. I didn't have to reset the protector, but in case it matters, its clamping voltage is 330V (for LN) or 400V (for LG and NG) and its suppression rating is 4350J.
After the monitor came back on, it wouldn't display anything from the laptop anymore. Nothing went visibly or audibly wrong during the outage, like sparks or smoke or anything like that.
I tried plugging the monitor into another computer, with the same cable, and it worked. I tried plugging a different monitor into the laptop, and nothing came up. (The computer's exact words were "Another display not detected.") Forcing the computer to output to VGA anyways brings up a second window in the Screen Resolution menu, but still nothing on the actual monitor.
I suspect that something is wrong with the VGA port itself, but I don't know how to confirm that, or more importantly, how to fix it. What can I do to get signal out to my monitor again?
Best Answer
I solved this with the "power button trick". First I shut the laptop down completely, then pressed the power button ten times, then held the power button down for 15 seconds. (Supposedly only one of those two is necessary, but I didn't know which, so I did both.) When I turned the computer back on, it connected to the monitor like nothing was ever wrong.