Laptop screen went dark after trying to hook up an external monitor

[westslopecutthroat]

I was trying to hook up a new NEC 27 inch high resolution monitor to my laptop. After getting everything hooked up (power cable, HDMI cable) and powered up, my laptop screen went sideways and the NEC external monitor came on for brief moment, then went dark. The function keys work on the NEC monitor, but that's about it. After that, I shut down my laptop and rebooted. After rebooting, my laptop screen is dark and won't come back. I guess it's trying to recognize the other monitor. How do I get my laptop screen to come back?

 

[westslopecutthroat]

I was trying to hook up a new NEC 27 inch high resolution monitor to my laptop. After getting everything hooked up (power cable, HDMI cable) and powered up, my laptop screen went sideways and the NEC external monitor came on for brief moment, then went dark. The function keys work on the NEC monitor, but that's about it. After that, I shut down my laptop and rebooted. After rebooting, my laptop screen is dark and won't come back. I guess it's trying to recognize the other monitor. How do I get my laptop screen to come back?

Oh, I have a Dell 17N laptop, Windows 7, I think.

 

[jsmithepa]

Well if you unhook the HDMI cable, your laptop comes back to life, you go whooooo and thanks God no damage.

Sometimes you have to "shove in" the HDMI cable.

 

[westslopecutthroat]

No, that didn't work. I tried that from the very beginning.