Monitor goes blank????

I have an HP Pavilion a305w with Windows XP. The monitor recently started to shut off on me after about 5 minutes of being on. The CPU continues to run as normal, just the monitor shuts off. I found out that if I unhook the monitor cable from the back of the CPU then plug it back in, the monitor comes back on...but then shuts off again after only 30 seconds. The only way to keep it on is to keep unhooking and rehooking it back up. Does anyone have any idea or guesses what the issue might be? The computer has never had any issues before and has ran fine for the past 2 or 3 years. I am totally lost here....

I had the identical problem, in my case, and I'm guessing in yours, the flashlight test fails, i.e., the problem is not the backing light.

I recently gave the monitor away to a gentleman who claims to have found the problem, the monitor is overheating and automatically shuts off for safety purposes. He says that he fixes these monitors by opening them (this is difficult) and then finding the loose connection causing the problem and resoldering it (somewhat less difficult).

I think your PC is overheating. Open it up and check that all the fans are working, and that there are no dustbunnies floating around. If the graphics card has a fan, be extra attentive. Try it with the box open for a day. If no more problems, you need to put in an extra fan or two, before you close it again.

You will have to look in the settings of the monitor to see if there is a "resume on on power restore" when the timer kicks back on. Also check the menus and manual on the monitor to see if there are other power and remote control options. It may even have an RS232 or USB port for remote control of the monitor and functions.

If it does not working yet,, I would say "service it". There is a ribbon that connects from the monitor to the mainboard, often times it does get weak and things like this happen.

Thanks for all the help and replies! I did try hooking up the monitor to my laptop last night just to see if the problem continued. Sure enough, same symtoms as when it was hooked up to the CPU. I'll try some of the suggestions provided and see if that helps solve it. Thanks again, I'll let you know what I find out.