I ruined the screen of my laptop a few weeks ago and have been surving off a cheap old dell monitor that I simply connected to my laptop. Today, I disconnected the two to move my laptop and when I reconnected them, the external monitor's screen no longer displayed the image from the laptop. I have tried to reconnect my laptop w/ several diff. monitors and it leaves an image on none of them, although the monitors act as if they are connected to an outside source. Any Help?

Most laptops have 3 possible states for an external monitor; 1) use external, 2) use both, 3) use internal. The three states are toggled using the Fn key and a function key (usually F8). Try connecting the external monitor and pressing the key combination wait a few seconds and see if the monitor activates. Try cycling through the 3 states.