I have an HP dv5 running Vista Home-Premium. I have it connected to my 32" RCA hdtv via HDMI cable but there is nothing showing on my TV. What settings do I need to mess with to get it to work?

You probably need to toggle the monitor output. Holding down the fn key and pressing one of the function keys (usually F7 or F8) will toggle between local monitor, external monitor or both. The Function key should have an icon that looks like 2 monitors.

My f4 button has a symbol that looks like a TV but this did not do anything. I'm looking at my display settings. There are two rectangles, #1 is my laptop screen and #2 is supposed to be my TV. I click on #2 and check the box that says extend the desktop onto this monitor. After that I clicked on identify monitors and a #1 appears on my laptop but my TV is still blank. Any ideas?