Widows Vista screen on, no image or sounds. Hard boot used to work. (I've heard powering a computer off that way is not good?)
Followed cumulative advice:
1. VGA chord worked. For some reason, images showed up on my monitor/television.
2. I remembered to count the tabs (1 and enter, no password) to make it through a blind log on screen for windows.
3. Right click on screen > graphic options > output to > notebook
4. (Now for where I screwed up in the past and didn't follow instructions) When you right click, there is also GRAPHIC PROPERTIES, this PERMANENTLY changes your output when you power on; this it what I had to change back to NOTEBOOK from MONITOR.
Still don't understand how the VGA chord was able to boot images and sounds, but it worked out great!