thanks for the information. yes i do have a Pentium 4 with hyperthreading, and i do have an ATI video card. i guess it's just another case of strange PC normalities?
is this the right forum to ask about my monitor? it's obviously working now, but when i shut down my comp for a time, and then i go to restart it. the monitor doesn't always load properly. i'll turn on the CPU and the monitor, the monitor will turn on, the light will turn green and then the screen says 'power saving' and the green light goes to orange and the monitor screen turns off. sometimes it'll take a few tries of shutting the CPU off and turning it and the monitor back on before i get the monitor to work properly.
what could be the reason for this?