I hate computers! Help needed.

[BigBassin144]

Ok, yesterday, I went to get on my computer, and clicked the mouse to bring it out of sleep mode like I normally would. The computer came out of sleep mode, but the monitor did not...

Now I can turn the monitor on, but it automatically goes back into sleep mode like it would if the computer was still asleep...

I called my cousin (who works for Dell) and he was stumped. But he gave me a few suggestions. He said hook the monitor up to our laptop via an Analog cable since there isn't a plug for the digital cable on the laptop. The monitor worked fine, so I assumed something is with the tower...

So, I try the analog cable to connect the tower to the monitor. After I rebuted, it came on like it should except, the screen was really weird and it said an error had occured (maybe it was since I turned the computer on and off so many times, I don't know). It ran through a startup repair, then restarted itself. Then it went through the booting up cycle about 4 times . then it brought me to a thing that said start windows normally or start in safe mode. I started it in safe mode.

My question, after that long and probably boring story is, can the digital cable go bad? (the computers only like 3 yrs old (I know, ancient in the computer world)) My cousin said he doubted anything was wrong with the cable, but it's still possible I guess.

When I plug the digital cable back in and switch the monitor back to the digital setting, it immediately goes back into sleep mode like it doesn't the know the computer is on...

One more question, will the digital connection give me a better picture than the analog? because the picture does seem to be weird, and I don't know if there is something wrong or if it's just because I'm using the analog connection.

Thanks for the help,
BB
the TI guy (technically impaired)