Got a "no signal" on my monitor

[kramer840]

i know this has been covered here a few times, but i'm not a computer guy and i don't install new software or video cards or anything, so this "no monitor" signal is perplexing. the only thing i can think of is that the computer was left on for a while and i had to do a manual shutdown. other than that, nothing had been moved, or installed, or unplugged. i did the normal stuff like unplug and replug the monitor cable (both the power and CPU) and restart the CPU. is there anything else i can do, or do i have to let the computer cool off for a while? thanks.