Is there a way to use the monitor part of a laptop as a monitor for a desktop?

Not that I know of. But why not try the reverse route?

That is, hook your laptop up to the questionable monitor… and see if the laptop’s image flickers over there.

If it does flicker, then the monitor is bad.

If it doesn’t, then focus your query to the vid card on your desktop machine.

misread the question.

@robmandu, the reason I can’t try the reverse route is that the laptop, like my OLD desktop, uses Windows XP. The new computer uses Vista. When the monitor was connected to my old XP machine, it worked fine and still does when I re-attach it. The problem with the flickering only occurs when I connect to my Vista machine. A Google search on the Viewsonic VX910 LCD display found others with similar problems with Vista.

@oratio, aren’t those contacts for using a second monitor for the LAPTOP? I want to use the monitor OF the laptop for a desktop.

So… then it sounds like you’ve already identified the primary culprit?

Vista is known to have driver problems.

I can only HOPE so. I would hate to think my new machine has a faulty graphics card already. And I’ve tried a few drivers. Apparently, some people changed the monitor’s internal hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/247964-33-viewsonic-vx922-monitor-black-screen-green-power-light-flashes

BUT it could also be my graphics card I guess.

Any chance you can get of distro of Linux, boot up from that, and see what happens?

No.

Take it over to a friend’s place and plug it into their monitor. And bring your monitor cable, if it’s separate from the monitor, so you can check that too.

It’s actually extremely complicated to do this. I’ve looked into it quite a bit since I disassembled a few dead laptops with great LCDs. Better to simply find an old PC monitor somewhere. I’ve got 3 lying around the house that I don’t use.