Dell monitor screen blank?

Please help i cant get my laptop screen to show through my dell monitor?

• i have a toshiba satilite laptop. the screen recently just broke. I had hooked up my dell monitor to my laptop and turned it on. The monitor showed the computer loading, then when it came to the log in screen the monitor went into a power save mode state. Basically the screen went black after that. I had then clicked on the button on the screen and it will say In Power Save Mode Press any Key on keyboard or move mouse. I did that on my laptop and nothing happen. What do i do.

• Answer:

  Do you know what resolution the laptop display was set to? It may be that your monitor does not support that display resolution. During bootup, it is only displaying 640x480 (I think) which any monitor can handle. After it blanks, the display driver should be initialised and the display set to a higher resolution. If the monitor does not support it, it may just remain blank or display some lines across the screen.