A few weeks ago this started happening, and is becoming more frequent. When my monitor goes to sleep, I'm sometimes unable to wake it up. The computer still runs and I can hear sounds associated with certain programs (If I'm able to find them in the blackness) The only way to get it up and running again is to shut down my computer, restart it, and pray it catches the monitor. It also has a tenancy to stop displaying halfway through start up.

Typical cycle: Restart five times to get BIOS to appear, another 5 times to get past the BIOS to the Windows XP loading screen, and 5 times more to get past that to the login screen.

LCD Samsung monitor, got it a year and a half ago.

Tips, ideas?

Buy a graphics card and see if that helps. I've heard onboard video isn't always reliable. Before you do that you can test a different monitor, unplug your vga cable and plug it back in, and test your monitor on a different computer. My guess is the onboard graphics card is pooping out.