That is what my monitor would call "No Signal Input" & then it behaves just like yours if I am inactive.

Anyway is the monitor plugged into the video card?

Is there also an onboard VGA connection?

Were you able to get into the Device Manager?

Start in safe mode and insert CD - reinstall windows. ME really is a pig... and quite reminiscent of the medical ME!

I got into Device Manager via Safe Mode but it won't allow me to re-enable the onboard graphics card in Safe Mode. Doesn't even have the option listed. So I decided to just format and re-install windows. I put the Nvidia card back in, put in the Windows install cd and powered up. Monitor immediately went into Test/Standby and would not allow me to get into safe mode or bios. I tried using a start-up floppy, no difference.

Did you try to insert the CD while in safe mode (without card) & try to reinstall from there?