Solved! Using external monitor with HP Pavillion laptop

[Guest]

Hello,
Have to use an external monitor with laptop due to cracked and unusable screen on laptop. The monitor screen is blank. Sometimes it will work if we hit f5, sometimes not. What is the process to consistently have the monitor work with the laptop? Thank you

 

[The_Prophecy]

Keep the monitor constantly connected to the laptop, and use Windows Vista or Windows 7 and you should be fine.