PC runs XP MCE.
 
2 scenarios
 
1) PC is on and running. I walk away for a while or whatever and when I come back the screen won't wake back up.
 
2) PC is running with power cord plugged in. I unplug and screen goes black and won't respond/wake up.
 
In both scenarios the PC stays on and I am forced to shut down by pressing and holding the power button which I know is generally a no-no.
 
lastly this doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes I walk away come back and teh monitor responds fine and sometimes I unplug the power cord from the back of the laptop and monitor stays on just fine.
 
Thanks for any help

So dell believes I just needed to update my drivers.  I did some remote connect thing where they take over the computer controls.  Took him like an hour or so to get it done, not sure what the hold up was.  basically he said if that does not work I have to send it in.

I have reproduced and isolated this problem. The problem is related to the version of .NET that you installed. The ATI A3 drivers appear to work best with 1.1 of the MS .net framework. I think 2.0 and 3.0 break it, unless you have service packs applied.
 
The way to fix this problem is to go add-remove programs and uninstall your current .net framework. Then download and install the 1.1 redistributable from Microsoft.
 
 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads [...] laylang=en

 
I swear to god if this fixes my problem.... first thing I'll do is go out and buy a punching bag...

Around the time it happened I did a few things to my computer.
I had been trying NOD, it ran out - so I removed the program.  When I did that my McAfee was gone.  So, I had to go through their web help to get it back.  It didn't want to just download again through their site. I had put in a trial version of Microsoft Office 2007.  After I got that all done my java wouldn't work for yahoo games.  All this was within a few days of each other, even the darkening of the screen, over and over.
 
Tonight, I noticed on my newly added McAfee, has a registry cleaner.  So I used it.  I also went into my program file folders and saw that NOD was still in there - deleted it and a couple of other programs that I had tried once, but, thought they had been removed through the remove programs, in the control panel.  
 
My Monitor screen works fine and I was going to spend 200 on a new monitor.