2nd Monitor nightmare!

For several years I have used 2 monitors without any problem. A few days ago I decided to replace the 2nd monitor connected by VGA cable for a new HP x2301 MicroThin LED Bright View. My main monitor is a HP x2558hc connected to the desktop HDMI socket. The video card is a NVIDEO GeForce 8600 GS which has been updated with the latest drivers.

After loading the new monitor drivers I connected the new monitor to the VGA cable and booted up. However the new monitor remained blank and showed that it was not receiving a signal. However when the old monitor was re-connected it worked perfectly! I spent hours trying everything I could think of and eventually have got it to the stage that it works perfectly ... until the computer goes into sleep mode or I restart when it again remains blank without a signal. To get it working again I have to turn off the monitor, disconnect the VGA cable and than reconnect the VGA cable and switch on the monitor.

When booting up the old 2nd monitor would display the boot files but the new monitor remains completely blank without receiving any signal until I go through the disconnecting reconnecting as described above. What I do not understand is that if I reconnect the old monitor than everything works perfectly. I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

Hello : could you just have a defective monitor ? This has happened to me once .

Yes I thought that too in the beginning but it works fine with my laptop.

maybe switch the monitors cable ?

Tried that as well ... but in any case the same cable works perfectly with the old monitor and with the new one when connected to my laptop.

A couple quick ideas..
Did the new monitor come with a driver CD? Or can you download drivers for it from HP? I think this might be the driver you need.

Another thought, try just right clicking on the desktop, screen resolution, then click on Detect. It might help

I mentioned in my first post that I loaded the driver. Also I mentioned that the new monitor works perfectly when it does and keeps working perfectly until I switch the computer off or until it goes into sleep mode ... it than seems to stop receiving a signal. I have been using computers for some sixteen years and it is something more than the basics so far suggested although I am grateful for all suggestions. When connected to my 5 year old HP laptop it worked perfectly as soon as it was connected and it immediately recognized the monitor without me having loaded the drivers from the CD. It could be the video card but if it is why does it than work perfectly with my old monitor?

Do you have any other options besides VGA?

Only the HDMI to which my main HP x2558hc monitor is connected. I had thought of switching them around but the main only has HDMI.

Just to clarify, your monitor has inputs other than VGA, but the only ports on your GPU are 1 HDMI and 1 VGA. Correct?