Reply #10: this... is generally not good.

[Occulus]

Try this: unplug your cable from the power socket and from the back of your tower and take a look at the pins. Are any loose?

Plug it back in on both ends. Turn your computer on and very gently wiggle the video cable at the point where is connects to the back of the monitor ad the point where it connects to your computer (you're looking for loose connections and broken wires in the cable itself here.)

Now for the fun part. Look carefully at where the video cable connects to the back of the computer. If you have a seperate video card (ie, NOT an "integrated" card, but a seperate physical board plugged into your motherboard), remove the case cover and gently but firmly press that card the monitor is plugged into (it'll be a crd in a slot on the motherboard itself) straight down into the slot. If it moves down at all it may mean your problem was that the video card was not completely seated in the slot on the motherboard.

I'll be billing you $40 for this. ;) (I bet you'd pay that or more at a shop for those diagnostics, by the way.)