Windows (7 & Vista) laptop monitor does not come back after closing lid

You might also want to see if there is a BIOS update for your notebook. Things like what you describe can sometimes be caused by ACPI (i.e. power management) oddities that can be (and often are) fixed in BIOS.

"I have a similar problem when I put my laptop in sleep mode and close the lid.

Typically I open it, which boots it with a blank screen, then sleep it again (with the lid open). If I then boot it again it will give me my login screen.

Possibly you could try to use your function key (Fn) or Windows logo + P to make it switch screens to get to your desktop.

Off course these are rather ""hacky"" ways and are merely based on trial and error. Hopefully I can find something more conclusive like changing settings, do you need the screen to go blank when you close the lid?"

I had this issue with Vista (seems to work correctly with Windows 7). With Vista, I had to turn off wifi first, then hibernation would work correctly. When I'd forget to turn off wifi it was hit or miss (almost always a miss).

Is the lid button getting stuck? Usually it's just a little pin that gets pressed in when you close it; try pressing it yourself and see if it pops out freely. As long as the Power Options are all set to "just turn off monitor", I'd lean toward a hardware issue before an OS problem.

If you have added RAM which works though is not certified for the laptop from HP, it will cause this issue. Take out all add-on RAM and try putting the system to sleep and waking back up.